Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Naruto decided, in this moment, that he hated rain. He used to love it, really. Nothing could beat the freeing feeling of jumping barefoot into a puddle, water splashing up to meet your face, and wiggling your toes in the mud underfoot. Running through the streets while the wind and rain surrounded you, shrouded you in its embrace, was an experience unique to all others. The world felt private. The rain would dampen all sounds and blur all vision. People would rush from one place to another, paying little attention to what's around them, solely focused on getting from one dry place to the next. The roaring rain would drown out Naruto's footsteps, his face would fade into obscurity amid the rushing, ebbing water, and the whirling wind would distract those who stayed out for too long.

The rain used to make Naruto feel invisible, like just another face in the crowd, something to pay little attention to. Undetectable to those who would normally look at him in disgust or contempt. It was a brief reprieve to the way he was accustomed to experiencing life. But in this dirty alley privately nestled between the less traveled back roads of Konoha, water slowly penetrating through his pants from the puddle he was now sitting in, Naruto decided. He hated the rain.

The day had started like any other. Waking himself up, changing into the clothes he picked out and bought himself, and making his own breakfast. He turned 6 last week, not that anyone really noticed, and had decided he couldn’t mope around inside anymore. This time of year always seemed to be the hardest for Naruto. People would give him even dirtier looks than normal, some would even knock him over or push him around. But, It would always all come to ahead on October 10th, his birthday.

Naruto made the mistake of going out into town to see the celebrations that fell on his birthday last year, when he had turned 5. It was incredible, for all of about 5 minutes, before he was essentially chased out of the festival streets by a crowd of angry, screaming people. Some even tried to throw things at him. They yelled and cursed his name. Told him he had no right to be here. That this celebration, that was open to all of Konoha, didn’t have space for him. He was the only one not welcomed.

He had been backed into a corner with nowhere to run, when he was suddenly whisked away from the enraged crowd. One second he was staring into the many, many, eyes of those who hated him, and the next he was standing outside his apartment door. A tall person, face covered by a white, vaguely dog looking mask, stood in front of him. He pushed Naruto’s door open, placed a single study hand on his shoulder, and steered him through the entrance. Only uttering the words “Perhaps it would be best if you stayed inside tonight,” before vanishing away, leaving no time for Naruto to turn around or say anything to them.

It had been a terrible experience to say the least, and with it, it had turned his already pretty sad birthday into an even more somber affair. Since then, Naruto had made the decision to stay inside as much as he could around this time of year. So, it having been a week since his birthday, Naruto decided it was about time he left the house and did the errands that needed to be done. He was in desperate need of some food.

He spent the day wandering the streets of the Market district, trying to decide what to buy, and where; making a mental map of who sold what, and how much they charged him. The loud crack of thunder had shocked him out of his thoughts, and the sudden, violent, downpour of rain had him seeking refuge under the closest store awning. It was at this moment the store owner had come outside, and started yelling at him. ‘Get out of here!’ ‘No Loitering!’ ‘You're going to scare off my customers!’ And other similar things were thrown into Naruto's face. The berating from the store owner had then caught the attention of those outside, who hadn’t yet escaped the rain. Two large men approached Naruto and the store owner, and asked Naruto ‘What the hell he thought he was doing?’.

Naturo tried to defend himself. Tried to claim that he was just trying to get out of the rain, that he didn't mean to loiter in front of this shop, that he would be happy to be a paying customer if they’d let him. That all he wanted to do was buy some food. But the two men weren’t hearing any of it. One of them grabbed him by the back of his shirt while the other laughed, and they dragged him away from the safety of the store awning. They continued to pull him through the streets, Naruto kicking and squirming the whole time, before they stopped in the entrance of a dirty looking alley, blocks, and blocks away from the Market district he had been in. The man holding him by the back of his shirt tossed him onto the dirty ground in front of them, and directly into a disgusting puddle filled with garbage. They laughed as he got drenched in the street water, told him not to show his face around there again, and walked away.

So there he was, sitting in a puddle, in the shadow of the small alley, cursing the rain. He was soaked through on all angles. He felt the cold seeping into his very bones, and shivered with the force of a small earthquake. All he could do was pull his legs up, and bury his face in his knees. He may hate the rain now, but he was still thankful when the drenching downpour hid his tears.

Naruto’s not sure how much time had passed since he was tossed into the damp alleyway, but eventually the rain stopped. Not that it made much of a difference, he was still soaked, and the wind was still just as strong despite the lack of rain. Naruto still hadn’t moved from his position of burying his face in his knees, he couldn’t muster the will to untuck his head, let alone stand up and go home. He didn’t even know where he was.

A door creaked a little ways away, and Naruto tensed, but still didn’t lift his head. Footsteps echoed through the alley way, paused, and started up again, moving towards him. But still he didn’t lift his head. The steps stopped in front of him, and Naruto could see, between his closed knees, a pair of high-heeled feet. The shoes were the colour of the most vibrant orange he had ever seen before in his life. He felt, more than saw, as the mystery person crouched in front of him. He flinched, eyes squeezing shut, and braced for impact. Preparing for the worst.

Without warning, there was a hand in his hair, not gripping or pulling, not trying to hurt, but gently petting back his drenched locks. Naruto didn’t dare twitch, afraid any sudden movement would provoke the hand to tighten. The hand softly, and very slowly, moved from petting his hair to slipping down the side of his face, and even more gently, coaxing his head out of his knees. The hand finished its descent cupping his cheek, its thumb rubbed the space below his eye, dispelling his tears. Naruto was pretty sure he had never been touched so tenderly before in his life. He cracked his eyes open after a second, and stared into the face of the most beautiful person he had ever seen before in his life. She had ebony black hair that was twisted into a hairstyle so complicated, and intricate, Naruto couldn't even begin to make heads or tails of how it was staying up. Her skin was pale, almost white, and her lips were painted a deep red matching her eyelids. But Naturo was mostly focused on her eyes. They were greener than any apple he had ever seen, it was like looking into the darkest, most ancient forest around and finding it staring back at you. Endless in depth and eternally green.

Those striking eyes were looking at Naruto, and they were smiling. Kinder than anyone had ever looked at him before. He was still frozen, but he didn’t feel scared anymore. Another tear slipped down his face, and the woman’s still caressing thumb made quick work of dispersing it. She hummed, pulling his attention, and spoke in a soft, comforting voice.

“You poor thing, You’re chilled to the bone, and this is no place for a child to sit, why don’t you come inside with me and warm up”.

This was how Naruto met Mayumi Yamazaki.

Mayumi was kind. Kinder than anyone Naruto had met before. She had lightly tugged him off the filthy ground, and steered him towards a door he hadn’t noticed before with a single hand on his shoulder. He followed, not really sure what else to do. He’d never been treated like this before, never experienced anything like this. Inside, the air had been warm and fragrant, It smelled like flowers and wood smoke. There was a kitchenette to the left, with a small stove, a sink, and a few cupboards. To the right was a table and chairs nestled neatly against the wall.

Naruto hadn’t said a word yet at this point. He’d been too afraid to say something and ruin the tentative kindness he was being given. Mayumi had directed him towards the table and chairs, and then proceeded to shock Naruto by placing her hands under his armpits and lifting him up onto the table's surface. He stared at her, with his legs dangling over the edge of the table, as she placed a hand under his chin and tilted his face this way and that. Searching for any sign of injury.

Mayumi had then wrapped him up in a blanket, hands firmly rubbing up and down his arms to generate some heat, and gave him a warm cup of tea.

She then crouched in front of him, stared at him with those deep green eyes, and asked him, in a voice that reminded him of how parents spoke to their kids when he saw them at the park, what happened.

It was like a dam breaking. Naruto sniffed once, then a second time, before bursting into tears. He told her everything. Not just what happened that led him to sitting in the dirty alley, but his entire life. How he lived. How he was treated. How he didn’t understand why he was treated the way he was. And with each word he spoke, Mayumi’s face twitched into disappointment ever so slightly.

At the end of his story, when Naruto had his hands clenched in his lap and his eyes squeezed shut in embarrassment, Mayumi did another thing that no one had ever done before. She pulled him into a hug. It was gentle but firm. She had tucked his face into her neck and rested her chin on the top of his head. One arm wrapped around his shoulder is a secure grasp, her other hand rubbing soothing circles into his back. Tentatively, after the shock had faded, he wrapped his arms around her neck and gripped the back of her silk blue kimono.

That night had been the first night of the rest of Naruto’s life. Mayumi had finally introduced herself to Naruto after he had gotten his emotions under control. He’d learned who she was, and where he was. She was the Madam of a brothel, although he wasn’t really sure what that was, but she had explained that it meant she was the one in charge of the ‘store’. That the people she employed provided company for those who needed it. She explained that they were in an area called The Flower District, a place not normally meant for children, and that her ‘store’ was commonly called yumi’s. Naruto thought it was incredibly cool that she had an entire store named after her, and had voiced these opinions in thinly veiled enthusiasm. She smiled, patted his head, and agreed that it was pretty cool to be in charge.

She asked if he wanted to stay for dinner, and he agreed. She had offered Naruto a change of clothes, noting that his were covered in mud and street gunk. He hesitated but agreed to that too in the end. She apologized, handing him a woman’s pink kimono and a washcloth, claiming that it was the only thing she had in his size. He wiped down in the bathroom before changing, giving Mayumi his dirty clothes as she offered to wash them for him, and stared down at himself. He blushed a deep red at what he saw. Mayumi let out a small huff of a laugh, and told him he looked very pretty, and that he could keep the garment since it looked so good on him. He smiled a small smile to himself, face getting Impossibly redder.

Later that evening, after the sun had set and Naruto was beginning to get tired, Mayumi offered to walk him home. She held his hand, leading him through the back roads, avoiding the busier areas, and stopped outside of Naruto’s apartment door. She gave him a quick peck on the top of his head, and left him with an open invitation to stop by whenever he wanted to. Only asking that he knock on the door of the same entrance they used earlier, and wait to be let in. At least until she had the chance to introduce him to all her employees, and get everyone familiar with each other.

Naruto closed his apartment door behind him, placed the bag containing his now clean clothes onto his floor, and fell back onto his bed. That night he fell asleep smiling, smelling the now comforting scent of flowers and wood smoke on his new pink kimono.
__________

Naruto went back to Mayumi’s the next day. And the day after that. And every other day after that too. Over the course of the next few weeks he met all the girls working for Mayumi, but he never ventured past the kitchen area where Mayumi first brought him. He didn’t fully understand what was happening beyond that area, but he did understand that it was something grown up, and not for him to know the details of.

One day, about a month after he met Mayumi, he was sitting at the table with Kimiko, one of Mayumi’s girls. She was a tall woman, with pale brown hair and black eyes. Different from Mayumi, but still exceptionally beautiful. She was helping him read a book one of the other girls had bought him. The story of the Fox and the Hound. Kimiko was one of the first of the girls Naruto met, and he immediately took a liking to her. She was just as sweet as Mayumi, but incredibly feisty and not afraid to bump heads. Overall she was his second favourite person, just after Mayumi.

When she had first learned Naruto was struggling to read, she had wound herself up in righteous indignation, and proclaimed that she would help him learn. All while muttering under her breath how unfair it was that a cute kid like him was being left alone like this. It was while they were like this, heads huddled together with Kimiko helping him sound out words he didn’t know, that Mayumi walked in. Her face immediately lit up when she saw Naruto, and he returned a smile in full when he lifted his head to see who walked in.

“Yumi Nee-san” he cheered, rushing to stand up and greet her with a hug.

Mayumi quickly bent down to scoop him up in a big hug before setting him back down.

“Naru-chan, how are you today?” she asked while smiling down at him.

“I’m better now that I’m here Nee-chan” he said, still smiling at her.

“Oh, why is that? Did something happen?” She asked, her face a bit worried.

At her question Naruto avoided her eyes, instead staring down at his feet where he was kicking a foot back and forth against the wood floor.

“I tried to go grocery shopping earlier today, but I ended up getting kicked out of the store” he said quietly, eyes still not meeting hers.

Mayumi gently touched his face, turning it toward her to catch his eye, and gave him a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sorry that happened, Naruto” she said kindly.

“Ne Ne, it’s okay Nee-san! When I’m a ninja everybody will be too shocked at my skills to do anything else but stare in amazement!” Naruto proclaimed loudly, a large smile plastered across his face.

“Thats right Naru-chan, you’ll amaze them all” she said back, smiling. “Remind me, when do you start at the academy?” She asked, trying to move his attention away from the previous topic in an attempt to cheer him up.

“I’ve told you before already, Nee-san. Next year! In September!” He whined, jumping up to hang off her arm, Mayumi straightened her arm to support his weight. When she had first met Naruto, he was a bit more reserved, more nervous, obviously scared of doing or saying the wrong thing. She was happy to see that he was fully comfortable around her and the girls now.

“Now that I’m six I can start with the next intake at the academy” He said quickly, swinging his body back and forth in excitement.

“That’s right, how could I forget” Mayumi said, smiling down at the child still hanging off her arm.

“Ay ay, Naru-chan, are you planning on doing any studying before starting at the academy? Smoke the competition early?” Kimiko piped up from where she was still sitting, tapping the book they were reading pointedly, a single eyebrow raised.

Naruto dropped down from where he was hanging off of Mayumi and scratched the back of his head, face blushing slightly.

“Hehe, I would, Kimiko-chan, but I don’t really have the money to buy any books or anything, and no one to really teach me any ninja stuff” Naruto said a bit sullenly.

“Why not take some books out from the library?” Kimiko asked.

“Library? What’s that?” Naruto asked in answer.

The two women made eye contact over his head, reminded once again of Naruto's isolated upbringing so far, before Kimiko moved her attention back to Naruto. “A library is a building that houses a bunch of books and scrolls, and people can go in and borrow any books they want to take home and read for free. They just have to let the person at the library know what they’re taking, and make sure to return the book by the due date.” Kimiko said kindly, standing up from where she was still sitting at the table.

“Whaaat!? You can do that?” Naruto asked in disbelief.

“Yes Naru-chan, lots of kids and adults alike go to the library to borrow books about a large number of topics. They probably even have some Ninja books available too” Mayumi interjected from where she was standing behind Naruto. Kimiko moved to stand next to Mayumi, so Naruto could see both women without constantly turning around.

Naruto was smiling an exceedingly large smile at the two women before suddenly his face began to fall, a small frown taking its place. “Oh, but I probably wouldn’t be allowed to borrow anything,” he said quietly.

The two women shared another look, not able to dispute Naruto’s sad claim. Based on the way they had seen the village treat him, they wouldn’t be surprised if the library didn’t let him borrow any books, let alone let him into the building.

After a brief pause Kimiko piped up, a smile appearing on her face as an idea came to her.

“You know, Suki-chan was in the academy for a few years, she might be able to give Naruto a few pointers.” Kimiko said to Mayumi before looking back at Naruto, continuing. “And I or one of the other girls could always go to the library and pick some books up for you”

Suki was one of the other girls that worked for Mayumi. She was younger than Mayumi and Kimiko, who were both in their early 30’s, and was barely out of her teens. She had crimson hair, cut into a shorter, hipper style and frost blue eyes. He’d only met her a few times, but she had always been really nice- excitable-, if not a little bit guarded.

Mayumi let out a soft hum, face betraying her deep thinking. “You’re not wrong, Kimiko-san, Suki-chan was in the academy for around 3 or 4 years if I’m not mistaken”. She paused again, face pondering, before directing her attention back to Naruto.

“Let me speak with her, Naru-chan, we’ll see if she would be willing to give you a few pointers”. She finally said, hand running through Naruto’s unruly blond locks.
__________

A few days later found Naruto sitting cross-legged on the floor in his apartment, Suki sitting in front of him with a large scroll layed out between them. They had decided to do this at his place because, despite the small area of his apartment, it was still more space than what was available in the kitchen at Mayumi’s. And he was still not really allowed beyond the kitchen.

She smiled at him a bit sheepishly, scratching the back of her head, “I don’t really remember any of the shinobi theory, and village history or world affairs stuff was never really my strong suit at the academy, but I do remember most of the chakra theory we were taught, and some of the foundations for Ninjintsu. It’s not a lot, but it will hopefully give you a foundation of some sort for when you eventually go to the academy”.

Naruto had his hands clenched on his knees, his back was ridge straight, as he vigorously nodded his head in response to Suki's short introduction.

“That’s okay Suki-chan, ah I mean Suki-senpai, whatever you can tell me will be amazing! I’ll use it to become an awesome ninja” he said excitedly, and a bit too loudly.

Suki smiled at him, chuckling a little at her new title as senpai, and pointed down to a diagram on the scroll in front of them.

“This is your chakra system…”
________

Naruto had been having lessons with Suki every couple days for a few months, and had a pretty good foundational understanding of chakra and Ninjutsu theory when it happened.

The day had started bad. Naruto had left Mayumi’s late the night before, not wanting to go back to his apartment by himself, and that mentality stuck with him from the moment he woke up. He was alone, and he was feeling particularly vulnerable for it.

He tried to cheer himself up by making some ramen, but then he realized he had run out and hadn’t yet gone shopping, so he had to have something else. As soon as he left his apartment it felt like every eye was one him. Every face he saw looked at him with disgust. Every eye he caught sneered at him.

He tried to go to the closest market store, but was almost immediately kicked out upon entering. He tried the next closest store, but when he got to the cashier, the price was almost triple what he was planning to pay. By his third store, he was so upset and overwhelmed that as soon as the store clerk asked him what he thought he was doing, he ended up just yelling ’buying groceries, got a problem with that!’.

This, it turned out, was not the right thing to say. Immediately the cashier walked up to him, grabbed him by the collar, and tossed him out of the store. The worst part, it had started raining- hard- in the short time Naruto was there. And Naruto hated the rain.

He landed rough on the cobblestone street. His knee skid painfully on the slick ground; his hands were stinging from the small rocks that dug into his palm. He didn’t move a muscle, stunned, fighting back tears. Around him people stared, gossiping meanly about him, how he probably did something to deserve it.

“Oh no, there’s a monster blocking the path” he heard an indistinguishable voice say.

Naruto’s head shot up at this, trying to see who said it on instinct. When he couldn’t immediately discern the culprit, he shot up like a spring, and ran home.

Naruto was pacing his small living area, panting, struggling to keep his emotions under wraps. He couldn’t understand why people hated him. What had he done for them to feel like they were justified to kick him down at every opportunity? Why was he left all alone?

He stopped in front of a mirror and saw his own ocean blue eyes, swimming with unshed tears, looking back at him. He wished, in that moment, that he had green eyes like Mayumi.

It was this initial thought that provoked the next.

What if he didn't look like himself? What if he could walk around whenever he wanted, with no one knowing it was him. What if he became someone else.

He knew what a henge was. Him and Suki-senpai had gone over it together; it was one of the only jutsu she could remember from the academy. He could remember what the hand signs were, but he couldn’t remember how the jutsu was meant to affect the chakra.

But it didn’t matter, he was suddenly desperate to be someone else. So, he decided he understood enough to try.

He collapsed into a legs-crossed seat on the floor in front of the mirror. He placed his hands on his knees and closed his eyes, focusing on the flow of his chakra. He breathed for a few moments, feeling the expanse of chakra within him. He placed his hands together into the sign Suki had shown him for the henge, and pushed his chakra out in every direction. Floodinding his chakra points with massive effort. Unknown to him, in his desperation, a bit of red leaked into his release.

He felt a pull all over his body, and then a sudden pop of sound and pressure. When he opened his eyes he was immediately met with a large amount of smoke, though it was slowly dissipating.

As soon as he could, he looked into the mirror in front of him, and was shocked at what he saw. He did it. He looked like a completely different person. And he was a girl?!

Naruto thought, while marveling at his reflection, that on some level he must have been thinking of the girls back at Yumi’s. Of the only people he felt truly liked him.

He had dark, almost blood red hair. Similar to Suki’s apple red locks, but more in length with Kimiko's hair, reaching to his mid back. He was the same height as before, and was proportional to other girls he had seen his age. His face was the same shape, round with clinging baby fat, but whisker-less. His nose was slightly thinner, copying that of Kimiko’s, and his lips were heart shaped like one of Mayumi's other girls, Tatsuo.

But his eyes, they were all Mayumi’s. Dark, forest green, and impossibly deep. The shape was the same too, although he noted that where Mayumi had mono-lids, he had kept his double eyelids.

He stood up after inspecting his face in great detail, and did a little spin in front of the mirror. He was still wearing his regular clothes, a t-shirt with his signature swirl, and blue shorts. He patted himself down, feeling the differences in his body. His skin was just as smooth as it had been (he had always healed really fast, so he was lucky to not have any scars or anything) but was paler. A quick check, while blushing profusely, confirmed he was female everywhere. Luckily, Suki-senpai had gone over anatomy with him during one of their lessons, adamant that the knowledge would only benefit him, so he was relatively certain everything was as it should be (Again, although unknown to him, red chakra that was much more knowledgeable than him, had played a part in making sure everything was correct). His conversation with Suki, while extremely embarrassing, had opened his eyes a little bit to what happened at Mayumi’s.

Naruto spent the next few minutes studying every detail of his person, before deciding he needed to show Mayumi. He glanced at his closet, where the pink kimono Mayumi had given him when they first met, was hanging. He had worn it a few times since then, likening how pretty it made him feel- like how pretty all the girls at Mayumi’s were- but hadn’t left the house in it since he brought it home.

He made quick work of changing into the first gift he had ever been given, and exited his apartment. He was nervous as he walked down the street, sure someone would look at him and know he was an imposter. But no one did. He got a few stares, but nothing like what he got as Naruto. People smiled when they made eye contact with him. A elderly woman even complimented him on his beautiful red hair.

By the time he made it Mayumi’s, he felt much more confident in his disguise. He was about to push open the door to enter the kitchen area, when he paused. He didn't look like himself. If he just walked in like he normally would, and someone was there or walked in while he was there, they wouldn’t recognize him. They might think someone was breaking in.

Instead he decided to knock and wait for someone to open the door. As luck would have it, the one to answer was Mayumi. She startled at Naruto as soon as she saw him, staring at him for a second before looking him up and down, eyes catching on familiar kimono. Naruto was about to say something when Mayumi’s eyes narrowed a fraction, and she questionably (and a bit suspiciously) asked “how can I help you?”.

“Ne ne, it’s me Yumi nee-san” he said, gesturing to himself, as if that would help prove his point.

Mayumi’s eyes narrowed a fraction more before tentatively asking, “Naruto?”.

“Yeah! I did a henge, a jutsu that lets you change how you look!” He said excitedly.

Mayumi smiled at the familiar tone, accepting that the girl in front of him really was Naruto.

“Wow, that’s amazing Naru-chan” she said while smiling; stepping aside so he could enter the building.

“Hehe thanks” he said, rubbing his nose.

They walked inside, Naruto sitting at the table, Mayumi taking the chair across from him. They were the only ones in the room.

“It’s truly incredible, Naru-chan, now that I know it’s you, I can see some of your features still present. Your face is the same, but… you look like you’ve taken a little piece of Kimiko and Suki for yourself.” She then moved her focus to Naruto’s eyes, felt herself smile, and cupped a single hand to Naruto’s cheek, “but your eyes, they look just like mine”.

Naruto blushed, giving Mayumi a blinding smile, just as big and endearing on the unfamiliar face.
______

“Why did you change your appearance, Naruto?” Mayumi eventually asked, after giving Naruto’s form a thorough appraisal, nodding her head in approval.

Naruto’s smile that he had been wearing since sitting down with Mayumi dimmed a bit, but didn’t vanish.

”It was a bad day” he started out by saying, “a really bad one. And when I got home, I was just so, uhhh, I- I don’t know. Confused? Hurt?” He tugged at the bit of hair hanging in front of his face nervously, eventually taking and pulling all his hair over his right shoulder, and tucking it behind his ear.

“I was sitting on my floor, and suddenly wishing I could be someone else, anyone else, so I could maybe finally be treated” he took a deep breath, holding it in for a second before letting it go. “Treated better, treated like everyone else. Then I remembered the Henge jutsu from Suki-senpais lessons, and I couldn't totally remember how it worked, but I tried my best, and when I opened my eyes I looked like this” at the end of his explanation he gestured vaguely to his face.

Mayumi smiled at him, not unkindly, before asking with gentle patience, “why did you choose to look like a girl?”.

Naruto’s face blushed in deep crimson matching his hair, and Mayumi had to admit, it made him look like quite the bashful, innocent beauty.

“Well, I think I was thinking about you, and Kimiko-chan, and Suki-senpai, and all the others on some level. Your- your my favourite people, and I guess- I guess I wanted to be like you all, maybe”. His voice trailed off shyly at the end before he spoke up again with confidence, “besides! What better way to make myself not look like myself than to totally be the complete opposite of myself! Plus, I don’t really mind looking like a girl” his face blushed again. “I like feeling pretty” He tacked on in the end.

Mayumi stood up at this, crossing the distance between them, and pulled Naruto out of his chair and into a firm hug. Her hand was gently petting through his long red strands as she murmured into his hair, “You're a very pretty girl, Naruto”.

She leaned back, placing both hands on his shoulders, and crouched down a bit to make eye contact with the new little girl in front of her. giving Naruto a look she hoped portrayed how serious what she was about to say next was to be taken. “I will support you no matter how you look; you’ll always have a place here with me. Just know, that whether you’re a boy or a girl, whether you look like this or like you normally do, or like someone else entirely, we will always cherish you and want you around”.

Naruto stared at Mayumi’s serious expression, tears slowly leaking from his eyes in a steady stream, before launching himself back into Mayumi’s arms for another hug.
_______

Kimiko chose this moment to walk into the kitchen area, and stopped short at the scene in front of her. Suki, who had been walking in behind her, collided with her back, letting out a short ‘oof’.

“And who’s this?” Kimiko asked, catching Mayumi’s eyes over the head of the little girl she was hugging.

Mayumi gently let go of the little girl, and moved to stand next to her while keeping a protective hand on her back. “This is Naruto, he figured out how to do a Henge Jutsu this morning,” she said proudly, smiling down at her small companion.

Suki stepped forward excitedly at that. “No way!” She exclaimed, moving quickly to stand in front of Naruto. Her hand reached out, taking his chin, and tilted his head this way and that to get a good look at his new face. Her other hand gently moved some hair out of his face and behind his ear, “nice hair” she commented, smirking.

“Nice eyes” Mayumi heard Kimiko say softly from where she was still standing, sending her a knowing smile. Mayumi returned with her own, small, private smile.

Suki suddenly stood up, taking a few steps back from where she had been crouched, and peered at Naruto intently. She frowned slightly, eyes narrowing in focus.

“You don’t have any signs of a typical henge” she eventually said, pulling the room's attention towards her. “Normally, with a henge, there’s a bit of a glimmer, or like, a distortion? It’s hard to explain, but at the academy, they said that if you looked at someone henged, you could usually tell by looking with enough focus. But you don’t have anything like that. If I didn’t know it was you, I would never be able to tell you’re henged”. She paused, organizing her thoughts for a second, “the sensei had mentioned that extremely strong shinobis could create more solid henges, but it‘s impossible to make something perfectly undetectable, that you can usually tell if you focused on their chakra”. She paused again, shaking herself out of he thoughts before shooting Naruto a genuine smile, “I can’t tell you if stronger shinobis will be able to tell that your henged, but civilians definitely won’t be able to, as far as I can tell, your chakra doesn’t feel any different to how a regular person's does”.

“If I can, I’d- I think I would like to stay like this” Naruto said quietly, looking at his feet, “no one was mean to me while I was walking around, no one yelled or looked at me badly. It was nice”. He looked up at Mayumi with hopeful eyes, and Mayumi realized he was looking for permission. Defaulting to the only adult in his life he trusted.

She smiled at the six year old with sweet eyes, so young and already so hurt by the world, and gave him a small nod. He instantly perked up, and gave her the biggest smile he could muster. He may look different, but Mayumi was beginning to realize that she would recognize him no matter what he looked like.

“Well, you can’t very well go by Naruto anymore then” Kimiko interrupted the silence by saying, “no point in changing your appearance if you’ll have the same name”.

Mayumi hummed, glancing down at the newly created little girl, “How about Narumi? It can mean ‘to be or to become’, ‘truth or reality’ or, of course”, she touched his cheek, "beauty".
____

Kimiko had asked Narumi, right after she had decided she wanted to stay as her, what she wanted to do about her life as Naruto. The girl thought about it for a second, took a moment to mourn who she was, but ultimately decided that Naruto couldn’t just disappear without a trace. He needed to be gone, but with good reason, and Narumi needed to be established as an existing person.

Narumi couldn’t live in Naruto’s apartment. Mayumi was the one to point this out, but she did so with the offer for her to come live with her. Narumi had tears in her eyes as she agreed.

Mayumi had sat Narumi down, before letting her make a decision, and really explained to her what her business did, and what the Flower District was. She made sure Narumi understood what she would be moving into, but she also wanted to make it clear to the girl that she would not be, nor ever be expected to be, a woman of the establishment. Narumi had blush profusely the entire time Mayumi spoke, but nodded her head in understanding by the end of it.

Narumi had taken some of her things, the stuff she really cared about, like the books the girls bought her, to Mayumi's modest two bedroom apartment above the brothel. Most of her stuff she left behind, not really having any attachment to it. Plus, it was agreed amongst everyone that if anyone went looking for Naruto, it would be suspicious if his apartment was cleaned out.

Afterwards, when Narumi was moved in, Mayumi approached her with the plan for what to do when people began looking for Naruto. At the end, when she had mostly outlined everything, Mayumi took Narumi's hands into her own and asked if she’d like for her to be her mother. She had calmly explained that it would help establish Narumi as a separate person from Naruto, that all the girls would back them up if asked, and that it would give her a foundation to build her story around. She then said, with slightly shining eyes, that she would love to help guide Narumi through this new chapter of her life.

Narumi was a crying, sobbing, mess.

It took almost two weeks before people started sniffing around. The girls had told Mayumi and Narumi as soon as they heard people were being stopped in the streets by ANBU searching for Naruto.

But they were smart, and people often forget that some of the first spies and ninjas were prostitutes. As soon as it was decided that Narumi was here to stay, Mayumi had approached her girls about spreading a certain rumor. Every person they spoke too, every store they shopped at, every client they serviced, they told the same thing.

‘Someone told me, a few days ago, that they saw that Uzamaki kid being beat up pretty bad. Apparently the guy even threatened to kill him’.

The rumour caught like a wildfire; twisting and spiraling as it spread, evolving with more and more detail from every mouth it left. Weeks went by, and the ANBU eventually stopped searching the village. Kimiko announced one day that she heard from a Shinobi who visits her pretty regularly that Naruto had been proclaimed missing, and presumed dead. Apparently, there had been a reward placed for any information on Naruto, or the man suspected of killing him.
__________

Narumi stood in the Hokage's office, Mayumi standing by her side with a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“You’d like to enroll your daughter in the academy?” He asked, confirming what he understood.

“Yes, Hokage-sama. My daughter has always dreamed of being a Kunoichi, she has talent that I believe would be a waste not to foster. And, to speak candidly, Hokage-sama, I want better for her than what The Flower District can provide.

The Hokage hummed at that last statement, he was well aware of the seedier part of the village. The Flower District being the centre of such things not to be mentioned in polite company.

He lifts a pondering hand to his chin, “You’re daughter is six you said?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama, she just turned six this past November”.

“You’re aware that, given where she grew up, that as a Kunoichi she may be required to go on missions not unsimilar to the life you wish to spare her from?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama, but it would be by her choice, working as a ninja, not as a result of her birth”.

The Hokage smiled at this and turned his attention to the nervous girl standing in front of him. “It was Narumi-san, correct?”.

“Yes Hokage-sama, Narumi Yamazaki” the girl said, pushing as much confidence into her voice as possible.

“And you wish to be a Kunoichi?”

“Yes! Hokage-sama” She yelled without hesitation. Mayumi gripped her shoulder a little tighter in warning, and Narumi glanced up at her sudo-mother with a sheepish grin.

The Hokage let out a small, huffed laugh. With her enthusiasm, he couldn't help but compare her to a certain blonde whose life had been cut far too short far too soon. Naruto would have been starting at the academy this year as well, he thought sadly.

“Intake is in September, 3 months from now, classes start on the first, I look forward to seeing you progress in your Ninja training, Narumi-san”
_______

Narumi sagged in relief when she and Mayumi exited the Hokages tower. She had spent the last 5 months studying Shinobi arts with Suki-senpai, reading any book she could get her hands on from the library (now that she could go herself), and learning the tricks of the trade from the women of The Flower District and Mayumi. All so she could prepare for her start at the academy. During all this time she had been living as Narumi; she’d run into her fair share of shinobi, but not one of them realized she was under a henge. However, the Hokage was a different breed altogether, if anyone was going to see through her, she was sure it would be him. But, thankfully, she'd gotten in and out without so much as a suspicious glance.
_________

Kakashi Hatake, 20 year old prodigy and legendary Jonin of the leaf, stood at the edge of training field number 6 staring, with a blank face, at the practice target he had just destroyed with a particularly brutal Kunai throw. He glanced down at the wood splinters littering the area in front of him and swiftly turned around, walking away from the mess he created. He stopped again in the middle of the training field, and stared up at the sky.

His sensei’s son is missing, dead. His sensei’s son was dead, and he wasn’t even in the village when it happened. He’d gotten back from a long mission outside of the village just after the Hokage had announced Naruto’s missing, presumed dead, status. He had barged into the Hokage's office as soon as he’d heard, and demanded to know the details of the case. Sarutobi had only looked at him with sad, guilty eyes as he explained the events as they understood them.

Naruto was attacked. He was attacked, and beaten, and killed in the streets of Konoha; and apparently, the whole thing had been witnessed by quite a few, but not a single person had stepped in. Not a single person had tried to save an innocent child.

But he wasn’t innocent, not to the people of The Hidden Leaf. To them, he was a monster. The embodiment of the thing that took away their friends and family. Never mind the fact that The Fourth sacrificed himself to save them, never mind the fact that he used his own son to do it.

It had been nearly 5 months since he’d learned what happened, and Kakashi didn’t think he was any closer to letting go of the guilt he carried. 5 months since his sensei’s son was murdered. If Minato-sensei had still been alive, he and Naruto probably would have been like brothers, but now, he couldn’t even remember the last time he saw the kid. Was it before he left for his last mission? No. It was almost 2 years ago, when he was getting accosted at the festival. He had taken the kid home, breaking the Hokages no contact rule for fear of the child’s safety. The counsel had tried to penalize him for the act, but the Hokage had come to his defense, citing it as a necessary act. But ultimately, the Hokage reiterated to Kakashi the need for him to keep his distance from the child in the end. Kakashi had tried to bring up his concerns for Naruto’s safety to the Hokage, but he had just reassured him that Naruto was perfectly safe as he was. What a load of trash.

Kakashi then requested the Hokage take him out of ANBU. What was the point of being in special forces, the first line of defence for the village, when you were never around to protect the people who needed you.

Kakashi exited the training ground, choosing to walk, he was in no rush to get anywhere anyway.
_____

Narumi was sitting on the swings, Kiba in the seat next to her. They were battling to see who could get highest, and Narumi was currently in the lead.

She had let Mayumi know that she was going to go play at the park for a while. She would never mention it, but Narumi knew Mayumi could use the free time to do work for the Brothel (she didn’t service clients anymore, being the owner, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have responsibilities).

It was here that she met Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji, who had already been at the park when she arrived. When she was about to do the monkey bars, Kiba tried making a remark about her not being able to do them because she’s a girl. She shut down those statements real quick. She climbed on top of the monkey bars, making eye contact with him the whole time, and proceeded to front flip to the ground, landing a foot in front of him with little effort. To say he was impressed would be an understatement.

Now the two of them were in fierce competition throughout the playground, and so far, Narumi was winning. They raced across the playground; they competed to see who could do the most somersaults in a row; they played multiple rounds of rock paper scissors, and even a few rounds of tic tac toe. Kiba was getting frustrated, not understanding why she kept beating him at these games of chance. Shikamaru just let out a huffed laugh when he saw her consistently starting in a corner square of the tic tac toe board. He wasn’t going to be the one to tell Kiba there was no way he was going to win if he kept letting her go first out of ‘courtesy’ since she was a girl. Suki-senpai had been the one to teach her that little trick, after using it on her multiple games in a row to her own great frustration.

Using her lighter weight to her advantage, Narumi was able to outpace Kiba on the swing, getting higher than the heavier boy. It was when the two were swinging up in opposite directions that the swing set suddenly lurched, causing Narumi to slip out of her seat at the peak of her height and velocity.

“Narumi!” Kiba yelled, seeing it all happen in front of him. Shikamaru quickly sat up, from where he was lounging in the grass, at Kibas panicked voice; and Choji tensed next to him where he had been sitting, watching the two of them compete.

Narumi flew through the sky, instinctively trying to twist her body in an attempt to land in the least painful way possible. when suddenly, she was wrapped in someone’s arms, safely on the ground.
______

Kakashi was still mindlessly walking the streets of Konoha when he found himself staring at a group of children playing at a local park. He briefly wondered if Naruto had ever been to this park, but quickly turned that thought away, moving to continue past the area. He then heard one of the children yell, and in an instant, he whipped his head to see what happened, catching sight of the now flying little girl with vibrant red hair.

He body flickered into her path, catching her princess style in midair, and held her against his chest to stop her from inadvertently wiggling out of his hold and onto the ground. The little girl let out a shocked gasp, head whipping up to see who caught her, and he found himself staring at impossibly green eyes, full of wonder. Her arms shot out, catching him by surprise, and grasped his face between her hands.

“Shinobi-san! That was amazing! You appeared out of nowhere!” She announced excitedly, squishing his face between her fingers.

He gently removed her hands from his face, cautious to make sure his mask stayed up, and placed her on the ground. She grasped one of his hands between hers, looking at him with excitement and curiosity.

“How did you do that Shinobi-san? You must be super strong to have moved so fast!” She gasped, “could you teach me how to do that?”

He finally shook himself out of his stupor, and took in the little girl standing in front of him. She had dark red hair tied up in pigtails; she was wearing a bright orange short sleeve kimono style shirt that reached her mid thigh; and had on a pair of regular black leggings and black sandals. He didn’t recognize her as any of the clan children, so he assumed she was from a civilian family.

“Mah mah, why should I do that?” he eventually said, giving her an eye smile.

“Because I’m going to be the greatest Kunoichi in the village one day, and how awesome would it be for you to say you helped me get there!” She said, giving him a huge, shit eating grin.

Kakashi actually laughed at this. Something about this girl was making him forget about the hurt he had just been stewing in. He pat her head, ruffling her hair a bit and messing up her pigtails, her hands flying up to shoo his touch away, “Maybe I’ll show you one day, when you’re a green little Genin, but right now, it looks to me like you’re not even old enough to start at the academy”.

“Ne Ne, I’m starting the academy in September!” She proclaimed loudly, a single fist bumping her chest to emphasize her statement.

He clapped his hands together lightly in a fast beat, and let out an impressed hum. Narumi briefly glanced down at her now empty hands, wondering when Shinobi-san had freed his hand from her grip. “Wow, I stand corrected future Kunoichi-chan, that’s very impressive” he said a bit placatingly, giving her an exaggerated eye smile.

The girl in front of him let a pout overtake her face before putting her hands on her hips, “Narumi, my name is Narumi Yamazaki, Shinobi-san”.

“Kakashi” he simply said, sticking his hand out for her to shake, chuckling softly to himself at the girl's suddenly serious demeanour. She clasped his hand as if to shake, and then shot him a mischievous smirk, before reinforcing her muscles with chakra and pulling him forward with a jerk of great strength. He floundered a little bit, caught off guard by her sudden power, and ended up being pulled down leaning toward her, luckily without falling. His own feet having planted to the ground with chakra on instinct. He stared at her, single eye wide in shock, as she smiled at him with a smug, satisfied face.

“Greatest Kunoichi in the village” she reiterated, voice determined. She then turned around, tossing a ‘thank you for catching me Kakashi Nii-san” over her shoulder, and jogged back over to Kiba. Who went from watching the whole exchange in shock, to challenging her to an arm wrestling match to determine who was the strongest.

‘Kakashi Nii-san?’ He asked himself in confusion, staring at the girl as she ran off toward her friend. And then the reality of what just happened hit him, this six year old just reinforced her muscles with chakra (consciously!), most kids didn’t even know what chakra was at that age. Especially not civilian children.. Strongest Kunoichi in the village, she had said, and he couldn’t help but think she might just do that, before shunshining away.
________

Kakashi body flickered to the entrance of the Hokage tower and immediately made his way into the large building. The secretary, a woman he had no memory of ever meeting before, greeted him by name and flagged him through to see the Hokage without so much as a second glance. Not even waiting for him to state his reason for the impromptu meeting.

Kakashi didn’t often see the Hokage of his own free will, and he had especially not been around to see him like this since what happened to Naruto. Briefly knocking on the door as a courtesy, since there was no way the Hokage wasn’t already aware he was there, he let himself into the man’s office.

“Ah, Kakashi, what can I do for you?” he said, puffing out a bit of smoke from his pipe, ever the grandfatherly figure he wished to portray.

“Hokage-sama, do you know the girl Narumi Yamazaki? A civilian child?” Kakashi asked, getting straight to the point.

“Ah yes, she’s a child of the Flower District, her mother came in not even a week ago to ask for her daughter to be enrolled at the academy”. Sarutobi’s answer shocked Kakashi a little bit, not that his face showed it. He wouldn’t have guessed the little girl he met at the park just hours ago would have grown up in such a place.

The Hokage pulled him from his thoughts when he continued, “why do you ask?”.

“I met her in a park earlier, I caught her when she fell out of the swing” Kakashi began, “the swing had lurched, and she slipped out right at the apex of the swing's height and velocity.” He paused.

“I’m happy you caught her before she could be injured, but, I am not understanding why you’re telling me this, Kakashi,” the Hokage said, looking at the former ANBU commander to continue, knowing he wouldn’t come to him without some reason.

“She twisted, Hokage-sama. As soon as her person left the swing, she began maneuvering her body to try and best minimize potential injury. And not like that of a regular child, she didn’t just throw her arms out to try and protect her face from the ground on instinct. She moved, with purpose, as if preparing to try and land in a tuck and roll”, Kakashi explained.

“While impressive for a child her age, it’s not completely uncommon for clan children to have some training before starting at the academy” The Hokage began to say.

“ -but she’s not a clan child, Hokage-sama” Kakashi interjected, “you said it yourself, she’s a child of the flower district, a civilian. But with what we can assume is with no formal training, she had the instinct to reorient her landing. And that’s not all, Hokage-sama. She pulled me down to her eye level”. This caught the Hokages attention.

“Explain what happened” he said, taking another puff of his pipe.

“We were going to shake hands, but instead she clasped my hand and pulled me down toward her. She had used chakra to strengthen her muscles, Hokage-sama, and based on the smirk she gave me, it wasn’t by accident”.

The Hokage leaned back in his chair, taking in what Kakashi had just told him. “That is impressive, her mother said she had talent, but I had thought that just a civilian mothers limited understanding of Shinobi skill”, the Hokage eventually said. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention Kakashi, I will keep an eye on Narumi Yamazaki”.

Kakashi gave the Hokage a single, sharp nod, and shunshined away.
______

Narumi had good control of her chakra, better control than Naruto ever had. The running theory was that it had to do with her henge. Before, when she would meditate with Suki-senpai as Naruto, she could feel the vast amount of chakra inside herself. But now- when she meditated- she could still feel her chakra, but it was more of an extremely large pond than the endless ocean it was. Suki-senpai has said it probably felt like less now because she was constantly supplying her henge with chakra inorder to keep it up. She didn’t fully understand everything when Suki-senpai tried to explain it, but she did get the important part. She had less chakra running loose within herself, and therefore, it was now easier to control.

She and Suki-senpai had also tested it a few times, to see if she would be able to use the Henge jutsu when already henged, and came to the conclusion that Narumi was scary-good at it. Every person she tried to transform into looked flawless, atleast to Suki’s untrained eyes, and when she would drop the henge, she was able to do so in a way that left her still looking like Narumi, and not Naruto. Narumi tried to explain to Suki that the Henge she used to look like Narumi felt different somehow, more solid. Neither of them could really figure out why her Narumi henge was so much stronger, more natural. Suki had asked at one point if she wanted to try dropping the Henge to look like Naruto again, to see what happened. Citing that it was okay for her to do so at the brothel because they all already knew the truth. But Narumi has declined, saying she was completely comfortable as Narumi. Suki had looked at her a little sadly when she said that, not being able to help but think that the girl in front of her just didn’t want to be reminded of the life she lived in the ‘before’.

Narumi had thrown herself into chakra training afterwards, finding it to be the thing she was most comfortable understanding. She had read about using chakra to strengthen or reinforce muscles, of using it to walk up walls or across water, when she was studying with Suki-senpai. And ever since she performed The Henge, and felt that push and pop of chakra, she felt extremely aware of her chakra and how it flowed. This made it almost instinctual to use chakra to strengthen her body, and when she tried to walk up a wall, it only took her a day before she stopped crushing the stone underfoot. Learning to walk on water came next, and she could admit it took a bit more time to get used to the fluctuating amount of chakra needed to do it, but she eventually got that too.

Now that she felt comfortable walking on and sticking to things using chakra, she had found her favourite thing to do was climb. She’d climb and perch on Mayumi’s cupboards, hang around on the roof of the brothel’s building, play jungle gym on the Hokage’s mountain faces, and hang around the village in trees and electrical poles whenever there was nothing else to do. She had also noticed that people tended to gawk at her when she would hang around the village, being stared at made it hard to people watch (and reminded her a little too much of being Naruto), so she had also eventually learned to conceal her presence. Pulling her chakra deep within herself, minimizing her notability, and now being able to easily move about without being looked at.
______

The first day of classes came fast. Narumi was pretty sure Suki-senpai was more stressed than she was. The slightly older, panicking girl was constantly asking her if she felt ready. She kept telling her that it was okay if she didn’t think she could do it, if she wanted to come home. That there was no shame in quitting. Narumi never really learned why Suki-senpai left the academy, but right now, she couldn’t help but suspect her senpai was telling her all the things she wished had been said to her when she started.

Mayumi was an ever present comfort to Narumi during all the craziness of preparing for the academy. Despite Narumi’s multiple instances of protest, Mayumi insisted that it was a mothers duty to pay for her daughter's school supplies. Even if those supplies were kunai and shuriken. Narumi had conceded, eyes a little watery, when she heard this, but had declared that she would pay for their lunch when they went shopping.

When the day finally arrived when Narumi would start at the academy, Mayumi put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and told her she would do great and to make lots of friends.
____

Narumi was walking, balancing really, on the top of a stone wall that paralleled the street, when she saw the academy come into view. Quickly, she spotted the three boys she had met at the park not too long ago, and took off in a run towards them, shouting Kiba’s name. They had hung out a few times since their first meeting, and Kiba was quickly becoming one of her favourite people. She found it fun, how easy it was to rile the boy up, plus, the Inuzuka was always up for a friendly competition.

Kiba turned around at the sound of his name, and yelled out his own greeting, arms waving in the air, when he saw the girl. Shikamaru and Choji, who were standing next to him and had also heard their friend's name be called, both lifted their own hands in a small greeting when they saw her.

Reaching the end of the wall she was currently running on, she boosted herself with chakra, and jumped toward the three boys, landing gracefully in between them.

“You totally have to teach me how to do that!” Kiba said while hopping multiple times where he stood.

“God, please don’t” Shikamaru said, shoving his hands into his pockets, and proceeding to leisurely stroll towards the academy. The three remaining students moved to follow closely behind. “that would be way too troublesome, having two of you being able to jump around all over the village like that, especially if one of them is dog boy here”.

Narumi let out a small snicker when Kiba loudly protested with a ‘hey! I resent that’. She put her hands together into a sign she was all too familiar with, and with a quiet shout of ‘henga’ and puff of smoke, she transformed into a perfect copy of Kiba

“Hehe, what was that about not wanting two of us?” she said, swinging her arm around Kiba’s back, and shooting shikamaru a grin. The Inuzuka looked at her in shock before quickly tossing his own arm around the copy’s shoulder and sending the lazy boy a matching grin.

The two of them let out matching boisterous laughs at shikamaru's face before Narumi returned to herself with a puff of smoke.

“Troublesome” Shikamaru muttered before doubling his efforts toward the academy.

The few times she had seen the boys out and about in the village, she had surprised them by seemingly dropping out of nowhere. Literally. The first time she did it to Shikamaru she had been sitting on the top of a utility pole, village watching, when she had seen him walking with his dad. She had jumped off the pole, propelling herself with chakra to make the distance, and landed in front of him in a chakra cushioned crouch. It was the only time she had ever seen Shikamaru truly emote, his face contorting in shock. His father had just watched curiously, though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at him, as the two kids briefly talked.
____

Shikaku Nara strolled into the Hokage's office, not bothering to knock, thinking it too troublesome if the Shinobi leader already knew he was there anyway.

“What is it?” The Hokage asked, knowing the Jonin preferred to get straight to the point, pleasantries aside.

“Narumi Yamazaki, I know Kakashi came to speak to you about her” The clan head simply said, raising a single eyebrow at the Hokage.

The Hokage let out a sigh, taking a puff of his pipe, “yes, what of her?”

“I couldn’t sense her, she and Shikamaru seem to be friends, and when she caught us in the street, she appeared seemingly out of nowhere. I did not sense her at all before she showed up. "The laid back man gave the Hokage a pointed look, emphasizing how impressive that was without saying it.

The Hokage put his pipe down on the desk, and let out a deep, contemplative sigh.

“Thank you Shikaku, dismissed”.

The Jonin nodded once, turned around, and left the office through the main door.
________

Narumi walked into the classroom, coming in right behind the three boys she had met up with out front.
The classroom was laid out with 3-people desks in a three by four grid, the height of each row increasing the further back you sat.

Narumi waved to her three friends as they moved to sit at a desk together, shikamaru instantly putting his head down to sleep, and looked around for another seat to take. Her eyes landed on a boy sitting by himself near the middle-front of the classroom. He had black hair and black eyes, and wore a dark blue turtleneck shirt that had a clan symbol she didn’t recognize stitched to the front of it. He was staring out towards one of the windows, quietly waiting for class to start. She moved to sit next to the boy, there were other seats around the classroom she could have taken, but he was the only one sitting alone.

Sitting down -the boy only briefly glancing at her before turning his attention back towards the window- she quickly introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Narumi Yamazaki, what’s your name?” She smiled, bringing one hand up to wave a bit awkwardly.

Black eyes met dark green when the boy finally turned away from the window to look at the girl who was now talking to him.

“I’m Sasuke Uchiha” the boy replied, trying to keep his voice even and confident, like someone of his clan was expected to sound. Like how his brother speaks.

“Nice to meet you Sasuke!” She said excitedly, giving the boy a blinding smile.

Sasuke stared at the girl, slightly entranced by her green eyes and open smile, before quickly turning away with a slight blush on his cheeks.

“Nice to meet you too” he muttered out, covering his face with a hand and refusing to look back at the girl.

Narumi let out a small huff, turning her attention to the front of the class, when she noticed another girl walk in, with bright pink hair.

The pink haired girl glanced around the room, hands fidgeting in front of her, and kind of shuffled in place. It was obvious to Narumi that she was unsure of where to sit. When the girl looked towards her table, Narumi made sure to catch her eye, giving her a bright smile, and patted the free spot next to her. The other girl brightened slightly, some of the nervousness leaving her, and quickly made to sit in the offered seat.

“Thanks” she muttered out, giving Narumi a small smile.

Narumi just smiled back back before cheerfully saying, “I’m Narumi Yamazaki” she jabbed a finger over her shoulder towards where Sasuke was still avoiding eye contact with the girls, “that’s Sasuke. What’s your name?”

Sakura looked past the friendly girl next to her, to the boy she hadn’t noticed coming in, before focusing back on Narumi, “hello, I’m Sakura Haruno, it’s nice to meet you both, Narumi, Sasuke”.

The boy finally looked towards her after being addressed, his face no longer blushing, and did a small nod in greeting.

“Wow, Sakuras’ such a pretty name! Were you named that because of your hair? You have really pretty hair” Narumi animatedly addressed the other girl.

Sakura blush a dark red, nodding slightly, “yeah, it is. But your hair is so pretty too! I’ve never seen such dark red hair before”.

Narumi scratched the back of her head, blushing, “hehe thanks, I grew it myself”. She laughed a little at her own private joke.

“She’s right, it's a really pretty colour” Sasuke suddenly piped up, face back to blushing, apparently having been watching the interaction between the two girls.

The two girls looked at him in slight shock before being interrupted by the teacher entering the classroom and calling attention.
_______

Iruka Umino may not be a great and powerful Jonin of The Hidden Leaf, but that didn’t make him any less Important than those who were. He was the youngest teacher to ever work at the academy, 18 and doing his best to instill the Konoha Will of Fire into the next generation. He was inexplicably trusted by the Hokage for a myriad of reasons, and was often called to the tower for administrative reasons. And he was perceptive enough to know when talent entered his classroom.

It was that last point that had Iruka visiting the Hokage tower today.

Knocking on the door to the Hokage office, Iruka patiently waited for the leader's voice to call for him to enter.

“Ah Evening Iruka, how are you?” the Hokage asked once the man walked in.

“I am very good, Hokage-Sama, and yourself?” The teacher asked.

“I am well, Iruka. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Sarutobi asked, gently placing his pipe down onto his desk.

”I came to speak with you about one of my students who recently started at the academy,” Iruka stated, placing a closed file on the Hokage's desk.

“It's only been a few weeks since the new intake started, surely there aren’t already problems with your class” the Hokage began to say, reaching to open the file he had been handed, only to be staring at the very familiar face of one Narumi Yamazaki. “Ahh” all he could do was let out a small hum once he saw her picture.

“Narumi Yamazaki, she’s 6 years old, turning 7 in November, she's in the same intake as those of the Uchiha, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, and many other clan children, and she’s absolutely surpassing all of them and every other classmate in Chakra theory and application.”

The Hokage stood up and walked towards one of the windows in his office, staring out over the village as he waited for the teacher to continue.

“She seems to have already mastered chakra walking, on both land and water. That’s not something academy students even learn, as you know. She seems to have a deep, fundamental understanding of her chakra, And how it flows. I’ve kept her after class a few times to speak to her about it, and almost any question I ask her on the subject she’s able to answer without much thought. This is without even mentioning that on the very first day of classes, I saw her Henge into a perfect copy of her classmate, Kiba Inuzuka. Now, I am no genius visual jutsu user like the Hyuga or the Uchiha, but I could not sense anything from her when she was henged. Had I not seen her do it, and had she not been standing next to the original, I would not have been able to tell it wasn’t truly him”.

Iruka capped off his speech by placing his hands on his hips, before letting out a deep sigh.

“She’s extremely talented, and I would maybe even go as far as saying she’s a genius,” Iruka said with a bit of finality.

The Hokage let out a bone deep sight, and turned away from the window to look at the teacher, “What about her other areas of study?”

“Her Taijutsu is about as bad as you would expect a new student to be, but her stamina is almost quadruple that of her classmates, and she’s extremely eager to learn. However, there does seem to be some areas where she is more ignorant than her classmates, which is probably due to her”, Iruka coughed, blushing a little, ‘“upbringing, but whenever those topics come up during class, she listens diligently, and I believe that she’s even studying these topics outside of class.”

The Hokage moved back into his chair, clasping his hands together while resting his elbows on the desk, and thought.

“You‘re not the first to come to me about Narumi Yamazaki. Both Shikaku Nara and Kakashi came to me with similar observations” Sarutobi eventually said, ending the contemplative silence.

“Kakashi? Really? When did he meet her” Iruka couldn’t help but ask, voicing his surprise.

“They met by accident a few weeks ago..” the Hokage said, waving off the others' questions, seeming to fall back into deep thought.

“Mouse” he suddenly said, an ANBU with a mask made to look like a mouse appearing in the room, “tell Kakashi Hatake to come see me”.

“Yes, Hokage-sama” the masked person said before body flickering out of the office.

“You may go, Iruka, it’s going to be a while before Kakashi gets here. Thank you for coming to me with this”.

“Of course, Hokage-sama”
________

Kakashi casually entered the Hokage’s office through the window, roughly 2 hours after Mouse had found him.

“Kind of you to finally show up, Kakashi,” the Hokage said with a barely suppressed smile.

“Oh well you know, I was on my way here when I saw this old woman-“ Kakashi began.

“Oh enough of that” The Hokage let out a small chuckle, “I wanted to speak to you about Narumi Yamazak.”

Kakashi raised a single, visible eyebrow.

“Both Shikaku and Iruka have also come to see me regarding the girls talents”

“Is that so”

“And after observing her, and having ANBU watch her, at least when they could -Shikaku had said the girl was able to conceal her presence, and the ANBU have corroborated this, having lost her trail multiple times- I’ve decided that she would benefit from private training instead of attending the academy. I would like you to be her teacher and train her” The Hokage gave the masked man a heavy, compelling stare.

Kakashi actually took a step back at the Hokage’s request, “you want me… to train her”.

“Yes”. He really did. Not just for Narumi, but for Kakashi as well. Since the war, he had been throwing himself into mission after mission. And then with Naruto’s death, and his subsequent retirement from ANBU, he had been mostly wandering around aimlessly, not refusing missions, but not actively seeking them out with the intensity he had been before. Having a student, and one as positive and talented as Narumi seemed to be, would help give him purpose again, he hoped.

“Why me, why not someone else? Like Asuma, or Genma?”

“Asuma is busy with his Genin team, and Genma is away on a mission, and will be away on a series of missions afterwards as well. You are the best choice Kakashi, I believe your younger age will be a benefit in this situation, and your experience in the field, as well as your experience as a young prodigy yourself, is invaluable.”

Kakashi looked down, hand scratching the back of his head, before rolling his neck and looking at the ceiling. He let out a long sigh. “Fine, I’ll take her in as a student, but if I don’t think she’s up for it, then she’s going back to the academy.”

“Wonderful”, a knock at the door interrupts the Hokage, “perfect, that must be her now. Come On In Narumi” he calls to the door.

Narumi walks in and startles a bit when she sees Kakashi already there, “Kakashi Nii-chan?” She questions, “oh, uh, Hokage-sama, you wanted to see me?” she greets nervously, almost as an afterthought.

Kakashi stared up at the ceiling as if looking for strength, a heavy sigh puffing out from his mask. The Hokage let out a chuckle at the girl's greeting of the other man.

“Narumi, thank you for coming to see me on such short notice, I’d like to speak to you about your education, if that’s alright” The Hokage said presently, not unlike that of a grandfather.

Narumi's eyes jutted around the room, to Kakashi, to the door, to the window, before finally settling on the Hokage. Her hands, that were tucked behind her back in order to stand at attention, were nervously picking at her cuticles.

“Of course, Hokage-sama. I hope I haven’t been an issue in class. I know you were, uhh… mm..” she tucks a stray hair that’s falling out of her bun behind an ear, “a bit wary, of- of letting me into the academy since I’m a civilian, and from The Flower Districts, but-,” her eyes dart around again, “but I'm studying really hard, and I know I’m not as good at the book stuff as the others, but Kimiko-chan is helping me, and and-“ she tries to subtly wipe her eyes, failing drastically under the watchful looks of two of Konoha’s strongest shinobi.

Sarutobi gets up from his chair and gently places a hand on Narumi’s shoulder, trying to calm the girl before she works herself up even more.

“You're not in any trouble, Narumi, quite the opposite, you're exceeding our expectations at the academy, and I’ve had multiple people come to me to share their opinions on your talent, including Kakashi here” the Hokage tells her kindly, trying to reassure the girl.

Narumi quickly looks at Kakashi, eyes drying up now that she knows she’s not in trouble, and gives him a small, smug smile, “you think I’m talented”. She says it like a statement, not giving him the option to refute.

“I simply voiced what I observed from you that day at the park to the Hokage” he says simply, but still lets a little smile grace his visible eye.

Narumi gives him a larger, more genuine smile in return and quietly says, “thanks Kakashi nii-san”. She looks back to the Hokage, who has now removed his hand from her shoulder and backed up to be standing directly in front of his desk, “what did you want to speak about, Hokage-sama” she says, voice much steadier now.

“As I said, you're excelling in your classes, and so it’s been decided that you would benefit more from individual, private training, as opposed to academy learning. Kakashi will be your teacher”. The Hokage finished by gesturing to the masked man still standing just off to the side.

Narumi sparkled at The Hokage, ecstatic that she was doing so well, before her smile suddenly dropped and she began chewing on her lip with a slight frown.

“What’s wrong?” the Hokage asked, not expecting such a reaction. Even Kakashi focused a bit more at the action.

“Well, it's not that I’m ungrateful, Hokage-sama. It’s just that I've made friends, for the first time ever, and I would be really sad to stop seeing them everyday at school…” she trailed off, unsure if saying this would be considered offensive to the shinobi leader.

She really had made friends. After their initial meeting, Narumi had made it a point to sit with Sasuke every class, and had been slowly chipping away at the boys walls. He now engaged in the conversations she and Sakura had (who had also taken to sitting with Narumi every class), and they had been developing a bit of a rivalry. Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji too; she would often play at the park with them after school before going home.

“Hmm” the Hokage hummed, not sounding upset, just contemplative. “Interaction with one’s peers is needed for a healthy emotional well being when growing up”, he took a puff of his pipe as he thought.

“I don’t disagree, Hokage-sama. Being separated from one’s peers too early can be harmful” Kakashi added in, perhaps voicing it out of his own experience. Although, Sarutobi suspected he might just be trying to get out of being a tutor.

“Perhaps, you should continue at the academy. Iruka-sensei has mentioned you were weaker in some of the more academic portions of class. Yes, stay at the academy, we’ll have Iruka focus on the theory and book learning with you during class time, this will allow you to stay with your friends, and then afterwards you can attend lessons with Kakashi, who will help you train your talents and prepare you to become a splendid kunoichi”. The Hokage eventually said, smiling at the young girl is reassurance that she would not be separated from her friends.

“That would be amazing, Hokage-sama!” She yelled excitedly, nodding her head with vigor.

Kakashi let a brief feeling of relief fill him at the Hokage’s changed decision. The new arrangement would leave him with more free time then if he were her sole teacher, and also this way he didn’t have to be the one to teach her all the boring stuff.

“Perfect, you can start on Monday. Take the weekend to relax, let your family know. I’ll leave you and Kakashi to iron out the details. This old man could use some fresh air” and with that said, the Hokage walked out of his own office, leaving the new sensei and student to talk.

“We’ll meet at training ground 11 at 4pm on Monday, I trust you know where that is?” Kakashi began to adjust his schedule in his head.

“Yes Kakashi-nii!” She said, doing a little salute.

He sighed, looking down at her with his one eye, before shunshining away.

Chapter Text

Narumi had arrived at the training ground exactly 10 minutes to 4. It was currently 5:30 and her new teacher had still yet to show up.

When she had first arrived, she’d decided to pass the time by doing some stretches, preparing for what she hoped would be an evening of training. After 20 minutes and still no sign of her teacher, Narumi chose to take out her academy homework. Might as well get it done now rather than later, it wasn’t the most exciting thing, but she figured she wouldn’t feel like doing it after training.

When that was done, she climbed a tree; figuring she might be able to get the drop on her late sensei when he finally arrived. She got bored after 20 minutes. Sighing, she climbed out of the tree and sat down in the grass instead, resigning herself to doing some meditation.

That was how Kakashi had found her. Eyes closed, legs crossed, and hands loosely resting on her knees. She breathed in deep, holding it for 2-3 seconds, before breathing out.

“You're late” she said, her tone laced with frustration and a touch of petulance, once he touched down in front of her. She didn’t bother opening her eyes, confident that the person in front of her was Kakashi.

“Yes well, I was on my way, but I had accidentally walked under a ladder, and you know what bad luck that is, so I had to hop the reminder of the distance here on one leg, to dispel the bad luck. And that takes much longer than walking.” Kakashi said in a tone far too serious for such a ridiculous story.

Narumi cracked her eyes open at that, and stared at the man in front of her with a look that could only be described as complete disgust and exasperation. Was her sensei an insane person? Did the Hokage know?

”even if I wanted to believe that for even a second, you're a Jonin, and an elite one too. if you did have to hop all the way here on one foot, you would still get here quicker than most Chunin” she said with a deadpan sort of intonation.

Kakashi looked at her for a second before crouching down on the grass in front of her a tad awkwardly.

“As you know, my name is Kakashi Hatake, and I will be tutoring you for the foreseeable future, probably” she looked at him a bit wearily at the comment, “why don’t we start with some basic introductions. Tell me some of your likes, your dislikes, what your goals are. Do you have any hobbies?.”

“You go first” she said, crossing her arms and giving him a bit of a stink eye.

“Well, alright. I like, well I like a lot of things, but you’ll have to wait until you're older for me to tell you about that. And my dislikes” he ponders his chin,”well I have those as well. My goals, hmm, I suppose I have some. As for any hobbies, well I don’t feel like telling you that” Kakashi finishes, giving her a look she can only think of as his attempt to look innocent.

“Kakashi-nii”, Kakashi sighs, “if you say that, I’m just going to think you're a pervert. I’m from The Flower District, I know what you're implying” she says, raising a single eyebrow at him.

Kakashi sputtered a little bit, letting out a quick cough, “ah yes, you would, wouldn’t you”.

She stares at him with a blank face before letting out her own sigh, “I like my mother, and the girls at the brothel. The colour orange, raman, climbing the trees and utility poles around the village, and I like my friends at school. I don’t like bullies, or being talked down to, and I hate the rain. My hobbies are people-watching, and gardening, and My dream is to be the strongest Kunoichi in the village so I can protect the people I love”

Kakashi looked at her for a second before standing up, “we’re going to start with a little test, I want to understand where your skills are at”, he said while brushing invisible dirt off his pants.

“Sure!” She said, springing up to follow, excited to finally be doing something.

“If I’m not impressed, you’re training with me will end here” he said, staring down at her, face serious.

She looked up at him in shock, “what! Kakashi-nii” Kakashi sighs,”that’s unfair! I don’t want our lessons to end after one day!” She says, a bit of desperation leaking into her voice.

“Then make sure to impress me,” he said coolly.

A determined look filled Narumi's eyes as she stared at the masked Jonin that would be her instructor. She straightened her back and made fierce eye contact with him. “Right, what’s the test?”.
_______

Narumi laid prone on the grass of the training field, breathing heavy. Kakashi had her running all over the area for the last 3 hours, testing her in every aspect of a shinobi he could think of. She sprinted through trees, threw probably over a hundred Kunai and Shiriken, sparred in taijutsu, henged into multiple people, and a million other things.

He looked at her from where he was leaning against a tree, a book open in front of his face, “Iruka’s assessment of you was correct. You’re extremely talented in Chakra control and manipulation, and your ability to henge is scary good. Even I wouldn’t be able to tell it’s actually you if you're able to put up a good act. But your other skills are pretty sloppy. although, that’s to be expected for someone with your age and upbringing. I assume you didn’t have anyone around to teach you Taijutsu?”

“Nope, just Suki-senpai. She’s the one who started teaching me about chakra and ninjutsu, everything else I know I learned from books and practice” she said, sitting up.

“We’ll start with training you in that, then. You have an incredible amount of stamina, but not much in the way of built up muscle. Being able to reinforce your body with chakra is good and all, but being able to reinforce an already strong body is even better” he said, looking back down at his book.

A grin spread across Narumi’s face, “does that mean I passed? You're going to continue teaching me, Kakashi-nii?” Kakashi sighed.

“We’ll have lessons four times a week, we’ll meet here on Monday, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 4pm, unless I tell you to meet me somewhere else” he said, not taking his eyes off his book. She grinned up at him before flopping back into the grass with a grunt.
______

The sun was beaming down on where Narumi and Sakura were laying in the grass. Well, where Narumi was laying in the grass. Sakura sat next to her, diligently folding flowers into a crown, while the two of them were chatting.

They were hanging out on a grassy bank next to a river, books and scrolls haphazardly piled into a stack next to them. It was Saturday, and thanks to Sakura's pestering and good planning, Narumi and her had finished up their homework first thing in the morning and now had the rest of the day to do whatever they wanted.

Sakura had cornered her the second school had ended on Friday, she’d told Narumi to meet her by the water, Saturday at 8am, to do their homework together. Sakura had tried to drag Sasuke along with them, but he had twisted away from her before she could catch him, and quickly exited the academy. Never one to stick around for a chat, the anti-social whelp.

Narumi leaned up onto her elbows and eyed the water contemplatively. It was hot for it being so late into October; although Konoha never really got cold, just less hot as the seasons changed. Sakura glanced up from her flower crown, seemingly happy with the way it turned out, and placed the white and green crown onto Narumi’s head. Right between her twin buns.

“There, all done” she said proudly.

“Thanks Sakura!” She smiled at her friend brightly before moving her gaze back to the water.

“Why don’t we go swimming? It’s honestly so hot out I feel like I’m gonna melt” Sakura said, sending the river her own longing look.

“I would love to just dive into the water, it looks soooo refreshing, but I don’t have a swim suit, and I don’t really want to get my clothes all wet” Narumi said a bit forlornly.

“Well? Why don’t you borrow one of mine? I don’t live too far, we could drop off our stuff so it doesn’t get wet and grab some lunch to take with us” Sakura suggested, shrugging her shoulders and standing up.

“Yeah? You’d let me borrow one?”

“Sure!”, she answered excitedly, reaching down to help pull Narumi off the ground.

The two quickly gathered all their things and made their way to Sakura's house. After dropping their bags on the kitchen table, Sakura quickly introduced Narumi to her parents (and also made a request for some packed sandwiches), before dragging the redhead upstairs to her room.

Sakura's room was pretty, with light green walls and wood furniture. She had a bed pushed against one wall, and a desk across from it against the other. She had a large window between the two that opened up to a balcony. Sakura gestured for Narumi to have a seat on her bed before opening her closet and digging around in a drawer.

She pulled out two swimsuits. A red one-piece with matching shorts, and a dark green two-piece of board shorts and a high-necked sports bra style top. Although, it was less sports bra and more cropped tank top. Sakura tossed the two-piece at Narumi, closing her closet door.

“You can borrow that one, the green colour will look really pretty with your eyes” Sakura said while kicking off her sandals.

Narumi followed suit, kicking off her own sandal, and holding the top up to her body.

“Thanks! This should fit great”.

The two quickly changed, Sakura throwing a dress over her suit, and Narumi just pulling on her long, orange, Kimono style shirt she had been wearing before. They rushed downstairs, Sakura grabbing towels and sandwiches from her mom, and ran out of the house.

The section of the river they were choosing to swim in was just outside the village, making it a bit more private, where the water curved widely. This made a large basin of slower moving, but deeper water. The area wasn’t trafficked much, not many knew of the prime swimming area, so the two girls were confident they wouldn’t be disturbed or disturb others. They dropped their towels, sandwiches, and clothes onto the grass and excitedly made their way towards the water.

Sakura tentatively stepped into the river, letting out an ‘eep’ when the cold water hit her feet. She stood there for a second, getting used to the water before slowly walking forward towards the deeper end. Narumi barreled past her, running full force towards the water while using chakra to run on the water’s surface, and cannonballed into the deepest part of the river. Splashing Sakura.

Her head breached the water’s surface and she laughed at Sakura indignant sputtering, “you have to just get it over with! The faster you get in, the faster you get used to the water’s temperature!” The girl yelled, swimming towards her friend.

Sakura hesitated for a second before hurriedly crouching her legs and dunking her entire body into the river. Narumi let out a whoop, languidly swimming on her back past her friend.

The two friends splashed around for a bit, Narumi getting out of the water multiple times to do cannonballs, when suddenly they heard someone yell.

“What are you two doing?!”

They looked towards the water’s bank and saw Sasuke standing next to their stuff, a single hand on his hip.

“Swimming!” Narumi yelled back, diving underwater and pulling Sakura down by her ankle. The pink haired girl kicked back to the surface, jumping onto Narumi’s back in retaliation. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Narumi laughed, using chakra in her hands and arms to lean on the water's surface like it was a supporting wall, keeping her head above water.

“You should join us!” Sakura yelled, trying to pry Narumi’s hands away from where she was leaning, “I could use the backup!”

“No way,” Sasuke said, crossing his arms.

Narumi started swimming towards the water's edge, Sakura still attached to her back.

“Come on, it’s fun!” Narumi called.

“Nu-uh” he shook his head.

Narumi and Sakura shared a glance over Narumi’s shoulder, the other girl swiftly sliding off her back. The two made their way casually to the water's edge and out of the water, and stood in front of their third friend. Sasuke briefly looked away from the two girls, face blushing slightly, and it was all the distraction they needed. They both instantaneously latched onto his wrists and sprinted in the direction of the water. Narumi shot Sakura a grin and the girl swiftly let go of her hold on the boy's wrist.

With Sakura having backed off, Narumi pushed chakra into her arms (to strengthen her hold) and legs (for the boost) and jumped into the deepest part of the river. Dragging her poor friend with her.

Sasuke sputtered to the surface, face red.

“N-Narumi, you idiot! Why’d you do that?!” He yelled, staring daggers at the offending girl.

She laughed boisterously, “hey! If I’m an idiot then Sakura’s an idiot too! She helped!” She pointed an accusing finger at her friend who was making her way back into the water to join them.

“I’m not an idiot, the two of you are,” she said, having made it to the group floating in the water.

Sasuke glared at the two girls before sighing defeatedly, shoulders sagging.

“Why was it me you two decided to stick to” he lamented.

“Hey, don’t say that! This is a mutual sticking! Don’t think I didn’t notice how you could have walked by without saying anything! You probably wanted to join us but were too shy, or pig-headed, to ask!” Narumi shot back, splashing a little.

“I wouldn’t be surprised” Sakura piped up from where she was floating between the two.

Sasuke's face reddened slightly, looking away from both girls, “w-what no! I just wanted to call you idiots, you idiots”.

”Well, now that you’ve done that, why are you still here?!” She yelled. If she’d been on land, Sakura suspected she’d have stomped her foot.

“Narumi!” He yelled back, launching at her. The girl in question quickly dove away.

Sakura laughed, chasing after her two friends, “Get her Sasuke!” She called after them.

…

They’d been in the water for a few hours when Narumi’s loudly growling stomach had interrupted Sasuke's attempts at water walking- He was mostly unsuccessful. Narumi had been standing on the water, repeatedly pulling Sasuke up and out of the river so he could try standing. He had managed to do it for a second once, but that and every other attempt, ended with him getting dunked in the water again and again. Sakura had just laughed floating past the pair on her back.

The three of them had shared the two sandwiches Sakura’s mom had made, and collapsed onto the soft ground, soaking in the afternoon sun. Sasuke eventually got up, pulling on his now dry shirt he’d shead not long after the girls had initially pulled him into the water.

“Hey, what were you doing here anyway, Sasuke?” Narumi eventually asked, hands resting behind her head, eyes closed.

“The Uchiha Clan lands are just that way, stupid”, he pointed in a vaguely right direction, though neither girl had their eyes open to see, “I was taking the long way home” he said, laying back down in the grass between Narumi and Sakura. Normally he wouldn’t voluntarily choose to relax surrounded by other people, let alone make the choice to lay directly between them. But, Sasuke had been laying down first when Sakura and Narumi had flanked him, and muscle memory and logic (because why wouldn’t he want to lay back down where the grass was already flat and he already knew it was comfortable) had him just laying back down in the same place as before.

The three of them relaxed there for a bit, eyes heavy after a day playing in the sun, or ‘training’ if you asked Sasuke. Eventually, Sakura stretched her hands out above her, back and shoulders cracking, before sitting up with a bone deep sigh.

“I should get home soon, or mom’s gonna worry, you coming with me Narumi?” She asked, standing up and pulling her dress back on over her mostly dry swimsuit.

“Yeah, I have to grab my stuff,” the other girl said, doing her own back cracking stretch. She pulled on her long shirt and moved to stand next to Sakura, “you good to get home by yourself, Sasuke?” She asked.

“Course I am, I’m not a baby” he said, sitting up from his previously leisure position.

“Really, coulda’ fooled me” Narumi countered, sticking her tongue out at the boy.

Sakura huffed, knowing if she left them to it they would devolve into another round of insults, and she’d be left standing there waiting for them to get over it. She looped her arm through Narumi’s, dragging the other girl away from a glaring Sasuke, and called over her shoulder “bye Sasuke, see you Monday!”, before leaving.

Sasuke huffed, pulling himself up off the ground, and started making his own way home.

…

Sasuke just reached the Clan entrance when he saw Itach. Sasuke was sure his brother already knew he was there, if the way he was strolling to the house at a leisurely pace was any indication. He always slowed down for Sasuke.

“Nii-san!” Sasuke called out, jogging to meet up with his brother.

He smiled kindly at Sasuke, face going a bit soft, “Hello Ototo, what were you up too?” He paused, sniffing the air, “and why do you smell like river water?”

Sasuke blushed, looking away slightly, “I went swimming,” he muttered.

“in your clothes?” Itachi huffed out a small laugh. He would lift Sasuke up onto his shoulders for the remainder of the walk home normally, but he didn’t particularly feel like also smelling of river.

“It wasn’t by choice” Sasuke pouted slightly, reaching up to take his brother's hand, “Narumi and Sakura pulled me into the water, it was a dirty trick” he muttered the last part.

“Did they?” Itachi said amused, accepting his brother's hand. He recognized the name Narumi, it was the little girl Kakashi was training. It’s always a surprise when there’s another prodigy in the academy, but what really surprised him was that Kakashi had agreed to train her.

“Did you have fun?” itachi asked, giving his brother another smile.

“Yeah” Sasuke sighed a bit dejectedly, as if it was some great injustice to have fun playing in the river with friends.

Itachi let out another laugh.
______

Narumi idly swung her feet from where she was perched on the top of a random roof in the village's busy area. It was Wednesday, so she was free from Kakashi’s clutches, and while normally she would use the time to hang out with Kiba and the others at the park, they had been busy.

Village watching was one of her favourite hobbies, and she’d been doing it so much that she’s even picked up on some of the gossip. Plus, living in The Flower District made her privy to many a man’s secret. Like the guy who owned the meat stall she was currently staring at. He had a wife, and two- no three- kids from what she could see on her perch, but he was a regular at Yumi’s. And if what Tatsuo-san told her was true, the guys into some pretty weird stuff that would probably ruin his life if his family ever found out. But that was the case with most families if the husband and father was being unfaithful at a brothel.

Narumi looked away from the meat man and glanced around the area, eyes begging to see anything of interest, when she felt a familiar chakra. She grinned to herself, stood up, and began moving towards her new target as stealthily as she could manage.

Stopping on a roof nearby the man, she used the height as an advantage point while planning her next move. The target was just below her, leaning against a pole, with the ever present book open in front of his face. She silently jumped from her roof to the pole the man was leaning against, and began slowly creeping down its length. She stopped when she made it directly behind him, and peered over his shoulder and at the content of the book.

“Oh wow, you’re like, actually a pervert” she said, startling the man to great effect. He snapped his book closed and whipped around to stare at the little girl who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere behind him. Her face was as red as her hair when she dropped from the pole. Or at least it would have been, if her hair was red right now. Narumi was sporting a short, brown wolf cut, and black eyes (not unsimilar to the uchiha eyes, too Kakashi’s own black eyes). Her face was the same, if not slightly more angular, more masculine looking, and her outfit was different. She had on a pair of black, high waisted shorts, and a tucked in mesh shirt with a cropped black and dark orange t-shirt layered on top (she would be lying through her teeth if she said she wasn’t the least bit inspired by Shikamaru’s regular style).

“That’s, you- it just happened to be a chapter like that, the rest of the book is a very sensible romance” he tried to defend, voice reaching a slightly higher octave, “and why do you look like that?!” He tacked onto the end of his defense.

“Uh huh, yeah totally, makes sense why you would be reading it out and about in public like that then” She nodded her head, voice dripping in sarcasm, very clearly not believing him. She hopped a bit backwards to sit on a nearby fence, feet swinging idly, “and I look like this cause I was village watching, I like to do it in disguise, make it less obvious it me hanging around” she explained as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, hands cumming up to dispel the Jutsu. In a puff of smoke, her hair and face returned to normal.

“More like snooping”, Kakashi mutters under his breath, “don't you have any studying you should be doing? or be hanging out with friends? or bothering literally anybody else but me.” Kakashi said exasperatedly.

Narumi scuffed her foot against one of the fence rungs below her, “Kiba and Shikamaru were busy today, and Sasuke blew me off before I could ask, and Sakura had to do something with her family, and I didn’t feel like hanging around at home while everyone is busy working”.

Kakashi groaned and began looking around the village in thought. Another sigh puffed out from behind his mask before telling her, in no uncertain terms, to stay there. He then turned around and walked into the building next to the pole he had been leaning against, it looked to be a weapons shop of some kind. Narumi watched the shop entrance for a minute before she suddenly heard an earth shaking shout of “How Youthful!”. Another minute later, Kakashi exited the building and began walking down the street, calling a quick ‘you coming?’ over his shoulder in her direction.

She hopped off the fence to follow, “Where are we going? and who was that?” She asked, jogging to catch up to him.

“It’s nearly six, I’m going to get some food. And that was Guy”

Narumi’s head popped up excitedly like a dog at the word ’food’.

“Oooo where are we going? and who’s Guy?” She poked him in the side.

He batted her hand away, resolutely looking forward.

“There’s a raman place a couple streets away, Ichiraku’s” he answered despite his obvious annoyment, “and Guys a friend”.

“Never heard of it” she shrugged, falling into step beside him, “and I didn’t realize you had friends”.

Kakashi pinched the bridge of his nose.

…

Narumi and Kakashi exited the raman stand, and the reluctant teacher couldn’t help but mourn the distinctly lighter feeling of his wallet.

Narumi had legitimate stars in her eyes as they walked out. She turned her head to look at the taller man, and asked him in a completely serious voice, “this place, this wonderful place, has existed in the village this whole time” her voice then increased into a shout “and I’m just learning about it now?!”.

Kakashi let out a small chuckle, and he was pretty sure he heard the raman vendor let out his own chuckle from the other side of the curtain.

“That was amazing” she continued unperturbed, “heavenly. I want to bathe in the miso pork broth” Kakashi looked at her with a little bit of disgust when she said that, “people should just stop cooking, no other restaurant is needed while that one’s around-“

“Alright, quit waxing poetic about Ichiraku’s. I take it, you liked it?” Kakashi interrupted.

Narumi vigorously nodded her head, stars still present in her eyes.

“Good, consider it payment for keeping quiet about the book, then thank me by going home and, I don’t know, study or something. Get lots of sleep, it won’t be an easy one in training tomorrow.” Kakashi patted her hair a bit awkwardly, the bun on her head loosening slightly.

“Okay! Thank you for the food Kakashi-nii” he sighed, “I’ll see you tomorrow!” She yelled, and then ran off towards home.

Kakashi watched the rambunctious girl sprint up the side of a building like it was nothing. He’d been training her for about a month and a half by this point, and despite his best effort (and Kami did he try), she had somehow endeared herself to him. He wasn’t dreading their lessons nearly as much as he thought he would.

He’d never pegged himself for a teacher, and honestly, even after doing it for a month and a half, he’s still not convinced he’s the best person to train her talents. But, he can’t bring himself to voice that thought to anyone else. Even if he brought the opinion to the Hokage, he’s fairly certain the old man wouldn’t change a damn thing about the arrangement. Kakashi knew, the grandfatherly man thought this move was a good one for Kakashi, even if he would never admit it to the former Anbu commander. The Hokage had laid a trap for Kakashi with the intention of forcing some personal healing on the man, and dang it, he was falling for it and there was nothing he could do about it- shy of running away from the village and becoming a missing nin, and he definitely wasn’t going to do that.

The worst part, he couldn’t even make himself be upset about it. After Naruto’s death. After he’d learned just how badly he had failed his sensei, Kakashi could admit he was in a bad place. But Narumi, she had so much- and was so willing- to give away pieces of herself. Kakashi couldn’t help but compare the two. If Naruto was alive, if Kakashi had made the effort to fight for him- to be around his sensei’s son- would their relationship be similar to what he now had with Narumi? Would he have taught him? Trained him? Taken him out for ramen at Ichiraku’s instead of her?

From what little he knew of the boy, and it always upset Kakashi when he really noticed how little he knew about him, Naruto was a loud kid. Rambunctious. Maybe he was rambunctious like Narumi. Narumi, with her fierce personality and fiery red hair; she almost reminded him of Kushina in some ways.

Kakashi let out a weary sigh, pulling up his hitaiate inorder to rub his eyes. He needed a drink.
____________

Narumi was at her desk bright and early Monday morning before class, balancing a pencil on her upper lip, trying to keep it there without using any chakra. Sasuke was sitting next to her, periodically glancing over to see what she was doing.

Sakura walked into the classroom, dropping into her usual seat next to Narumi, “morning” she said cheerfully.

“Morn’n” Narumi said, face scrunched up with trying to keep the pencil in place.

“Good morning” Sasuke said, giving Sakura a slight nod, before moving his attention back to Narumi, “what are you even trying to do, idiot?” he said.

Narumi scoffed, “keep the pencil in place, obviously, stupid. I’m trying to do it without chakra”.

“Why?” Sakura asked kindly, with genuine curiosity.

“Yeah, why?” Sasuke asked less kindly, but no less curious.

“Because doing it with chakra is too easy” she lifted the pencil to her forehand, using chakra to stick it there, and gave it a little flick so it spun like a pinwheel, “trying to hold it in place without chakra is harder, more entertaining” she said matter-o-factly.

Sakura looked at her with sparkling eyes, ”can you teach me how to stick things with chakra?” She asked.

Sasuke nodded his head slightly in agreement, face pouting a little bit.

“Uh, sure, I can try,” she said, letting the pencil drop into her hand.

“Really?! Can you show us after school?” Sakura looked at her hopefully.

“Sorry, can’t do today, I have plans” Narumi said a bit guiltily, scratching the back of her head.

“You've had plans after school almost every day for the last two months, what are you doing?” Sakura asked with a bit of intensity in her voice, as if compelling the girl to answer.

Sasuke again just nodded his head, also wanting to know what she was doing.

“I have training after school most days” she said, face blushing slightly, “the Hokage thought I would do well with some more, um, “she tugged her hair slightly, “more advanced instruction” she finally said.

Sakura and Sasuke both just stared at her. Sakura with amazement, and a little bit of Jealousy, Sasuke with an unreadable expression, though she thought she could see some jealousy there as well.

“You're getting private tutoring? By The Hokage’s recommendation?” Sasuke asked slowly, like he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Um, yes?” She said, unsure of herself, “b-but you know! He’s always late, like every day, so if you wanted, you guys could come with me and I could teach you the pencil trick until he shows up” she smiled at them.

“Are you sure?” Sakura asked, unsure.

“Yeah absolutely, he’s always 1 or 2 hours late anyways” Narumi said, a bit exasperated.

“If he’s always late, why do you bother showing up on time?” Sasuke pointed out.

“Because, I never know how late he’s going to be. Sometimes he’s only half an hour late, another he’s showing up almost 2 full hours after we’re supposed to meet. I think he does it just to be a jerk” she says, crossing her arms a bit petulantly.

Sakura snickers at her whining tone.

“He’s probably just trying to keep you on your toes, idiot” Sasuke gave her a ‘are you stupid?’ stare.

Narumi just stuck her tongue out at him, blowing a raspberry.
_______

Narumi, Sakura, and Sasuke sat in the approximation of a circle in the grass of training ground 11, pencils of varying lengths and weight scattered around them. They had been there for about an hour and a half, with still no signs of Narumi’s teacher arriving.

When they first got there, Narumi had instructed the two of them to meditate for a few minutes, and really get a feel for their chakra. After that, she tried to explain to them how to move their chakra around their body, and to focus it to stick the pencil to their body. Sakura had taken to it much easier than Sasuke, her pencil pretty consistently sticking to her forehead for a second before falling to the ground. Sasuke had worse luck at it, not being able to get the pencil to stick at all. Narumi had just encouraged him to try mediating more.

Narumi was spinning a pencil on the tip of her nose, Sakura was repeatedly sticking a pencil to her forehead every time it fell to the ground, and Sasuke was glaring at the pencil in his hand when Kakashi arrived.

“You’ve multiplied” He said simply, appearing in front of the three children.

Sakura and Sasuke jumped back in surprise, while Narumi just scoffed, sticking a second pencil to the tip of her finger, rotating it the opposite way to the one on her nose.

“You’re late, again” she said, throwing a pencil at him, giving a bit of a chakra boost so it stuck into his vest with the sharp, graphite end. Sakura seemed to straighten, paying closer attention when Kakashi didn’t do so much as flinch.

“Yes, well, I saw an old lady-“ he was cut off when another pencil lodged itself into his vest.

“Yeah, no” she said, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, “These are my friends, Sakura and Sasuke” she pointed at them with the business end of another pencil. Her two friends leaned slightly away, now aware that the seemingly innocent school supply was a weapon in her hands.

“N-nice to meet you, Kakashi-senpai” Sakura bowed slightly.

“Nice to meet you” Sasuke grunted slightly, before Sakura put a hand on the back of his head, forcing him to bow slightly. He shot her a betrayed look from his newly angled position.

Kakashi’s eye flitted to Sasuke, recognizing him for his name and Uchiha clan symbol stitched to his shirt. He gave the two bowing kids an eye smile, while simultaneously pulling out the pencils embedded in his vest.

“Mah mah, no need to be so formal, I’m around this one enough to not expect respect from the youth” Kakashi said, gesturing to the redhead who was now balancing a third pencil on her person.

“you’re only twenty-one, Kakashi-nii”, Kakashi sighs, “some would say that you’re also part of the” she did quotation marks for the next part, “‘youth’. unless you want me to view you as a pervy, old man?” She asked innocently.

He narrowed his single eye at her, slowly twisting one of the pencils he was holding through his fingers (Sakura seemed oddly captivated by the action, watching the man with what can only be described as an intense wonder), she narrowed her eyes back, as if daring him to try.

“How do you even know how old I am?” he asked a bit tightly, playing up his scrutiny.

“I asked around,” she said simply, keeping her eyes narrowed on him.

…

“So, what are you three up too?” He eventually said after a beat, breaking the staring contest. He gives his hands a clap, allowing fake cheer to enter his voice.

“I’m teaching Sakura and Sasuke to stick pencils to their faces,” she says, sticking a pencil to her forehead in demonstration. Sakura copies the girl, sticking her own pencil to her forehead, only for it to fall a second later. Sasuke crosses his arms, and pouts at the small pile of pencils in front of him.

“Sasuke’s having trouble with it” she snickers slightly, giving the disgruntled boy a cheeky smirk.

Sasuke huffs, and looks away.

“I assume you're trying to teach them how to do that with chakra?” Kakashi asks, raising his single, visible eyebrow.

“Yup” she said, popping the ‘P’.

“You do know that’s an exercise not usually taught until you become a genin, right?” He asked, staring at the three of them in equal measure.

Sakura's eyes widen slightly as she shakes her head. Sasuke stares up at the man, eyes a little bigger. Narumi drops all the pencils off her being, staring at Kakashi with a ‘no way’ expression, “you can’t be serious. Actually? Like genuinely?”

“Genuinely” he says, voice flat.

“But it’s so easy!” She yells, throwing her hands up in the air.

“That’s because you're some crazy, chakra prodigy. Most people can’t use chakra as easily as you can without years of training”. He says, throwing one of the pencils towards her with his own chakra boost. She snatches it quickly out of the air, chakra increasing her speed to do so. He looks at her as if to say ‘see what I mean?’.

“Wow, so Narumi is an actual genius?” Sakara asks, her question directed to Kakashi.

Sasuke whipped his head to look at Sakura in horror before quickly turning his gaze to the masked adult, “that can’t be true. This idiot can not be considered a genius”.

Narumi shot Sasuke a look of betrayal.

“Hmm, well, I wouldn’t say genius, I’ve seen her test scores, more like, abnormal chakra proficiency” Kakashi says, giving the redhead what even she could tell was a shit eating grin.

“Iruka-Sensei called me a prodigy,” Narumi muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Why don’t you call me Kakashi-sensei?” The man asked with a scornful expression.

“Because I respect Iruka-Sensei,” she said, inspecting her cuticles like how she’d seen Suki-senpai do to appear indifferent.

“Haaaaa” Kakashi let out a long sigh, rolling his head back to look at the sky.

“Alright, I think we should start with Taijutsu today”, he lowers his head, eyeing the three students in front of him, “your opponent can be Sasuke, no chakra usage allowed”.

Sasuke's head snapped up to look at Kakashi at the same time as an ‘oh shit’ expression filtered over Narumi’s face.

Kakashi shot her his most innocent looking eye smile.
______

Narumi lay panting on the ground, arms slowly developing with purple bruises. Sasuke stood by her, hands resting on his knees as he desperately sucked in deep breaths of air. Sakura eyed the two from where she’d sat next to Kakashi on the sidelines, still practicing sticking a pencil to her body.

“Your Taijutsu has improved over the last month, but it seems you're still no match for Sasuke in that regard” Kakash said and he ideally flipped the page of his book.

Sasuke collapsed into a heap on the ground, a long suffering groan escaping his lips. Kakashi had made them do Taijutsu practice matches for 2 whole hours without a break. Sasuke had won every match, but was running nearly empty in the energy department. Narumi was doing much better than him in that regard, but even with her extra stamina, her moves were two clumsy against Sasuke, who had been learning Taijutsu since before starting at the academy.

“You’re talented at Taijutsu, Sasuke,” Kakashi said, looking at the boy over his book. Sasuke just let out another grunt, blindly patting the ground for the canteen Sakura had just placed between her two friends. His hand slapped Narumi in the face, once, twice, three times before moving on and finding the canteen. Downing the water like a dying man.

Narumi let out her own matching grunt, doing little more than scrunch her face up during Sasuke's assault.

Kakashi glanced at the sun, noting the time of day, before putting his book away, “let’s end here for today, seeing as our lesson is shorter than usual,” Narumi shot him a glare, “I’m assigning you homework”, she groaned, “Practice you Katas tonight, and again in the morning, and during any other moment of free time between now and tomorrow's training”. Sasuke glanced at Narumi from the corner of his eye.

“I’ll be testing you,” Kakashi concluded. Narumi let out another groan and rolled over, face smooshed into the grass.
______

Narumi slumped into the apartment, dropping her bag onto the floor by the door, and wandered toward the living room. She flopped onto the couch, face first with her feet propped up in the arm rest, and let out a long groan.

Mayumi walked into the room, dish towel flung over her shoulder, and quizzically looked at the dead looking girl.

“Are you alright, Naru-chan?” She asked, moving toward the couch.

“Mmpfh mm mgh mohfhh”

“What was that?” She laughed lightly.

Narumi flipped her head to the side, face free from the couch's soft cushion, and repeated herself, “Kakashi-nii is a monster“.

Mayumi gently lifted Narumi’s legs, sat on the couch, and deposited the dead weight into her lap.

“Why is that?” She asked, lightly squeezing the girl's ankle.

“He had me do Taijutsu matches with Sasuke for two full hours, with no break!” She groaned again, “it feels like my body is dying, I’m covered in bruises”.

Mayumi glanced at Narumi’s arms, that were laid out next to her sides, and eyed the purple, now yellowing bruises.

“Hmm, sounds to me like you probably did something to provoke him” she said lightly, pinching her heel.

Narumi blushed, turning her face back into the couch.

“Sorry? What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you” Mayumi probed, poking her in the calf.

Narumi looked over her shoulder to see Mayumi, “I may or may not have implied that I don’t respect him” she said, face still blushing.

Mayumi laughed, pulling the girl up into a sitting position, and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, “well what did you expect? From what you’ve told me, Kakashi-san is willing to give as good as he gets”.

Narumi leaned into Mayumi side, closing her eyes, “yeah, but it’s fun to rile him up. And I think he also did it for Sasuke's benefit. He was getting a bit upset about not being able to do a chakra exercise I could do and that Sakura was starting to get. I think he had us spar so Sasuke could see that while I do really good at chakra stuff, he does really good at other stuff”.

“Oh? That was kind of him, If that was what he was doing.”

“Yeah,” Narumi sighed, pulling herself off the couch and out of Mayumi’s embrace. “I’m going to go shower and then practice my Katas for a while I guess”.

“Alright, have a good night” Mayumi called after the girl.
________

Narumi strolled up to her and Kakashi’s regular training ground, and was momentarily shocked to see the man already waiting for her. She jogged up to the man, where her first instinct was to try and punch him, as hard as she could, in the stomach. Kakashi dodged, shooting her a withering stare, “Why is your first reaction to seeing me, to immediately punch me?” he asked with a slight shrill to his voice.

“Because you're never on time, ever. So you're either an imposter, or a shadow clone. Either option dictates I punch you in the stomach” Narumi stated factually, punching her hand in emphasis.

Kakashi sighed, lifting his hands in a placating motion, “I understand your logic, but is it really that unbelievable that I would be here on time for once?” he complained.

“On time, maybe not, I might be persuaded to believe it. but you're not on time. You’re early, Kakashi-nii” Kakashi sighed as he usually does when she calls him that, “okay, so maybe you really are Kakashi, but how do I know you're not a clone?” she petulantly placed her hands on her hips.

“You’ll just have to trust me when i say I’m not a clone-”

“Or you can let me punch you and we’ll both be satisfied, or you’ll be proven a liar, and I’ll be owed another bowl of Ramen from that magical place”

“Fine! You can punch me, once, in the shoulder, and not with all your full strength, just enough to dispel a clone if I am one.”

“Deal!” she smiled wickedly, pulling back and whacking the taller man with a touch too much strength. Kakashi barely flinched, crossing his arms over his chest.

“There, happy?” he rolled his one visible eye when he very obviously didn’t explode into a puff of smoke.

“Very” she gave him another shit eating grin.

He narrowed his eye at her, “you never thought i was a clone, you just wanted a free hit” he accused, leaning down to her level to increase his glaring ability.

“Nooo, I totally thought you were a clone, Kakashi-nii” Kakashi sighed, “I swear” she said, attempting to bat her eyes innocently, giving him a fake smile.

“Sure” he intoned.

The two's arguing was interrupted by Sakura and Sasuke walking onto the training grounds. Sakura shot a hand in the air, waving furiously, while her other hand was gripping Sasuke's wrist in a tight grip as he trailed behind her reluctantly.

“Narumi! Kakashi-senpai!” Sakura called.

“Sakura, Sasuke, what are you guys doing here?” Narumi called out in question, turning her back on the now slouching Jonin, book opened and in front of his face in almost superhuman speed.

Her two friends reached the previously arguing pair, Sakura slipping an arm around Narumi’s shoulders in a quick side hug, Sasuke’s wrist still tight in her grip. The boy in question’s shoulders were slumped, free hand on his hip, and was glaring at the edge of the training field as if the land itself had wronged him somehow.

“Actually”, Sakura bagan, finally letting go of the disgruntled boys wrist, ”I was hoping you could help me with something.” She asked as kindly as she could muster, eyes unintentionally focused on the man leisurely reading behind her friend. She then smiled brightly, eyes shooting back to her friend, and pointed a thumb over her shoulder, “and Sasuke’s here because when I started heading over, he wasn’t fast enough to escape my grasp” she said pleasantly, alluding to the boy still refusing to meet anyone’s eyes standing behind her.

Kakashi glanced at the boy in sympathy from over his book, before turning his attention back to the pink haired girl in front of him and his student.

“Ne Ne, Sakura, course’ we’ll help. Won’t we Kakashi-nii” Narumi announced, Kakashi sighed.

“Alright” Kakashi relented, giving the children an eye smile.

“I’ve been practicing that pencil trick you were trying to teach us on Monday” she began, addressing her friend,” and I’m finally able to get the pencil to stick to me more easily when I’m focused” she gestures to her forehead as if she were doing the exercise at that moment, “and I was wondering if you”- she looks at both Kakashi and Narumi- “could show me how you were able to get it too spin. And how you were able to stick more than one”, she pauses for a second before grabbing blindly for Sasuke behind her and pulling him into their conversation.

“And also, even though he won’t admit it, Sasuke has been practicing the Katas you assigned Narumi as homework last time, and he wants you to take a look at his forms” she gives the now incredulous looking boy next to her a reassuring pat on the back.

Narumi peered at Sasuke with an exaggerated hurt expression, “and here I thought you kept practicing the Katas with me because you wanted to hang out. You were just using me for my education” she wipes a false tear from her eye.

Over the last few days, during lunch breaks and between classes, Narumi had been practicing the Katas Kakashi had assigned her. Most of the time Sasuke would join, claiming the extra training was a better use of his time then trying to converse with the other children of their class. Narumi secretly thought Sasuke just didn’t want to deal with Sakura and Inos bickering any more than he had to, the two somehow always managing to strike up an argument whenever there was a free moment. Apparently, Ino had a thing for Sasuke, and decided she instantly hated Sakura because of her friendship with the boy. And Sakura, thinking Ino was stupid for liking the boy without ever having spoken to him, was quick to fight back at the other girl's crude remarks.

“Hmm, is that so?” Kakashi raised a single eyebrow at the two lesson crashers.

Sasuke looked away again, face blushing, but nodded, letting out a soft ‘hm’ in confirmation.

Kakashi eyed the three students in contemplation for a moment. Narumi had Sakura's hands cupped between her own, excitedly congratulating Sakura on being able to do the pencil trick. Sasuke was standing next to the two girls, not touching either of them, but not separate either, his body very clearly angled toward them. They were an obvious unit.

If what Sakura was saying was true, she had been able to learn the chakra exercise in just a few days without any additional training. Most academy graduates struggled with the exercise when they first joined a genin team, and they usually had a teacher to support them the whole time. This girl, she could also be a potential chakra controlling powerhouse like Narumi, with a bit of training and support.

Sasuke on the other hand, his taijutsu was at textbook levels, and his sparring against Narumi had been impressive to watch. The fighting Instinct he displayed wasn’t something that could be taught, it was born. And, if he had to guess, the boy was probably more advanced than the average student at ninjutsu as well. The Uchiha were famous for their Fire Jutsu, and the training for that usually started young.

”Narumi, Sasuke, go over there and start doing some warm up stretches, Narumi, do yours while standing on the water”, Kakashi gestured toward an open, flat expanse of area on the training field. Next to the grassy plot was a wide, slow moving river, perfect for water walking practice. The two kids nodded to Kakashi, Narumi sprinting for the river, and Sasuke following behind her as a much more reserved gate.

“Sakura, can you show me the pencil trick?” He asked kindly, handing her a pencil he had seemingly pulled out of nowhere. The child nodded, taking the pencil from his outstretched hand and gently placing it against her forehead. She closed her eyes, focusing for a second, and then opened them again when she removed her hand. The pencil stayed stuck to her forehead.

“Good, try to keep the pencil there as long as you can, don’t worry if you can’t do it for very long, but try to keep it there until it’s too difficult to continue” Kakashi said, beginning to walk around her, studying her.

“Keep focus” he said after a second, lightly pushing her on her shoulder, causing her to rock slightly. The pencil stayed stuck, and he gave himself a satisfied nod. He walked behind her, giving her another slight push in the center of her back. She stumbled forward marginally, but otherwise stayed planted, pencil still stuck to her forehead.

He steps back in front of her, and watches as she strains slightly, face scrunching up in effort. Finally the pencil drops, and her whole body relaxes with it.

Kakashi gives her a large smile, patting her on the head lightly, “6 minutes, that’s very impressive Sakura” he praises.

Kakashi thinks back on when he had done this same exercise with Narumi the Tuesday prior, he had wanted to test her control with the trick now that he had been reminded of its existence the day before. The girl had held the leaf to her forehead for over five hours, with multiple leaves being added and removed over the course of the time without any issue. They had sparred for a while during it as well, and the girl kept the leaf stuck without a sweat the entire time. The only reason the leaf fell away from her at all was because Kakashi had called an end to the exercise for the day. At that thought, Kakashi had to take a moment to really appreciate how extraordinary the girl's chakra reserves were, and how impressive her manipulation of the chakra was.

Sakura looked up at him with vibrant adoration at the praise, and Kakashi couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle at the girl’s reaction.

“This exercise, like I mentioned before, it’s actually a genin chakra training technique. It helps teach you how to focus and manipulate your chakra and develop chakra control, which is needed for most, if not all, ninja arts. Normally, the exercise is done with something like a leaf,” Kakashi hands her a leaf he has again seemingly pulled out of nowhere, and removes the pencil from her hand, “try again, this time with the leaf” he instructs her.

Sakura tries again, enduring Kakashi’s poking and pushing, and manages to keep the leaf stuck for a 12 minutes this time instead.

“Now, what can you tell me about this attempt, what felt different?” He probes.

Sakura thought for a moment before answering, “the leaf was, um, less noticeable? Then the pencil? So it was harder to pinpoint where to direct my chakra and get it to stick. But since it was lighter than the pencil, once I got it stuck, it was easier to keep it up. Less effort” she answers, looking to Kakashi for his agreement of her assessment.

“Exactly right, different things require different amounts of control and precision. I want you to try holding the leaf to yourself with chakra for as long as you can- do it in multiple locations, not just your forehead- and once you can hold it for 20 minutes without dropping it, we’ll try adding more leaves” he guides her.

Sakura nods excitedly, sitting down on the ground and placing a leaf to the tip of her finger, face contorted in deep focus and determination.

Kakashi turns around to leave her to it, intent on heading over to the other two kids who should be wrapping up with their warm up stretches. He stops when he hears Sakura call out to him before he can get too far.

“Kakashi-senpai, how long can you hold a leaf to your forehead?” She asks, voice curious.

“Hmm, well, last time I did it, I had to stop when I went to bed, and I had around lunch that day” he answers, voice betraying his obvious smile.

He continues his walk towards Narumi and Sasuke, but he still manages to catch Sakura‘s quietly awed ‘wow’ from behind him.

…

Kakashi stood in front of the two children he had so foolishly decided to gift his valuable time to. somehow, in the 20 minutes he had been working with Sakura, Sasuke and Narumi had managed to get themselves soaked in water, and covered in dirt.

He stared at them- hands on his hips, aura exuding disappointment- as the two refused to look at him. Sasuke was glaring indiscriminately to his left, directly away from both Kakashi and Narumi; and Narumi focused to her right, hand covering her mouth as her shoulders shook with barely contained laughter.

“Haaaaa, do I even want to know?” He bemoaned, cursing whatever string of events led to the two children’s current damp state. Narumi only laughed harder, body curling inward like a cooked shrimp, as a screeching laugh escaped from behind her hand.

Kakashi sighs again and quickly forms his hands into a series of sighs before loudly announcing “Wind Release: Divine Mountain Wind”.

A vortex of whipping wind blasts forward, directly at the two kids. Narumi tries to quickly dodge the blast, but Kakashi body flickers into her path and simply pushes her back into the swirling vortex of wind with little effort. Sasuke doesn’t get a chance to react, the wind approaching too quickly for him to do anything.

(Sakura glances up at the sudden commotion, taking in the large wind Jutsu. She couldn’t help but watch in wonder; it was her first time witnessing such a powerful Jutsu. She briefly questioned what her two friends did to warrant such a response from Kakashi-senpai, but she quickly decided whatever it was, the wind was probably deserved. She focused back in on her own task, reinvigorated)

Kakashi watches as the wind dissipates, leaving him smiling somewhat menacingly at the two, unhurt, but now completely dry and extremely rumpled students. Narumi hair, which had been tied into a pair of twin buns on her head, now fell around her face in a tangled mess. Sasuke’s own hair wasn’t fairing much better, the black strands sticking up even more than usual.

“There, now you're all dry, although there’s not much I can do for the dirt, that is unless you want me to clean you up with a water style Jutsu?” Kakashi asks, his smile never leaving his face; voice caked with fake cheer

Sasuke and Narumi quickly glanced at each other and then back at Kakashi, heads shaking ‘no’ vigorously.

“N-no need, Kakashi-nii” Kakashi sighs, “we’re fine with the dirt” comes Narumi’s rapid response.

“Yeah” Sasuke agrees, grunting, a constipated look on his face.

“Oh good, should we get started then?” He asks, voice still laced in false cheer.

Another round of nods, this time in agreement.

“Good, now both of you, run through the Katas”.

The two kids quickly got in position and began diligently working through the katas Kakashi had assigned Narumi as homework earlier that week.
Sasuke, to his credit, was in sharp form. Kakashi could tell that the boy had indeed been practicing with the girl over the last couple of days. Not only were his forms nearly perfect, but Narumi’s had improved massively also, and Kakashi was certain that was Sasuke’s influence. The two seemed to motivate each other to constantly improve, one not wanting to be outdone by the other. Where Narumi was proficient in chakra related fields, Sasuke was her superior in taijutsu and all its related branches. Narumi may be able to accelerate her kunai with near perfect chakra control, but Sasuke was better at getting the kunai to actually hit where he wanted it to. Sasuke was a good match for her in that regard, he helped keep Narumi focused on improving, not wanting to be outdone by the boy.

After a few minutes of the two running through their forms, Kakashi called for them to stop.

He looked at Narumi, “you’ve definitely improved over the last few days, keep practicing your forms whenever you get the chance and soon you’ll have them down pat, and Sasuke,” he turned to the boy, “your forms are nearly perfect as is, there’s not much I can say, just try to keep your chin up, you look down at your feet every now and then. your footings good, be confident in them. The both of you have done really well,” he gave them a sincere eye smile this time.

The two kids grinned at Kakashi, and then at each other. Narumi reached down and grabbed Sasuke’s wrist, forcing the boy's hand up for a high five before letting it drop. Sasuke stared at her, and then at his own hand, his face unreadable.

Kakashi clapped his own hand together, reclaiming the two’s attention, “time for some sparring”, he announced pleasantly.
__________

It was early in the morning. The sun had just made it over the horizon and people were only now leaving their homes to begin their days. Iruka Umino, chunin academy teacher, had Kakashi Hateke, elite Jonin of the leaf, cornered in his own apartment. Not many people knew where Kakashi lived; Iruka only knew because, well, let’s just say it involved at least four different nin dogs, an S-class mission, and an exceedingly large amount of Alcohol.

“Hello Iruka, what can I do for you?” Kakashi said a bit nervously as Irkua menacingly began stalking toward him. The jonin was dressed casually in his mask-attached undershirt and black cargo pants when Iruka had appeared in his apartment, looking ready to take on an army single-handedly.

Kakashi’s back hit the fridge as Iruka closed the distance, his eyes crossed a little to focus on the single finger raised in his masked face.

“Explain to me why, Kakashi, three, instead of my previous one, students are currently outpacing the rest of my class by a mile?” Iruka said in a deceptively calm tone.

Kakashi raised both his hands up in a placating gesture, trying to calm the other man, “Mah mah, I have no idea what you're talking about” Kakashi said, like a lier.

Iruka raised a single eyebrow at the silver haired man, he took in a deep breath, lowering both his arms to his sides, before yelling “KAKASHI!” right in the other man’s face.

Kakashi’s face blanched slightly, he was definitely going to be getting a few noise complaints from his neighbours.

“Explain!” Iruka reiterated, resisting the urge to use his big head Jutsu. The two stared at each other for a minute, Iruka glaring, before Kakashi let out a long sigh.

“Well your cute little students decided to start following my cute little student to her lessons, and who am I to discourage the youth from learning” Kakashi eventually said.

Iruka glowered at the man.

“Sasuke’s taijutsu was already the best in the class, but I can’t very well have him only fighting Narumi, so now I’m having to pair both of them up against the older students, and they're still beating them more than eighty percent of the time.

Sakura was already the smartest Kunoichi in the class, but now she’s even correcting me during lessons when she thinks I’m saying some perceived inaccuracy. This is a first year course, I’m explaining things correctly for a first year course. Beginners don’t need to go into detail about the different types of nature chakra!

And not to mention, I regularly find all three of them walking up the walls of the academy building at lunch. And I know for a fact that all three of them can water walk too. Thankfully none of their classmates seem to have noticed their furtherment, but it’s only a matter of time”, Iruka was breathing deeply, trying to catch his breath after his mini rant. He made eye contact with Kakashi, “how long have you been teaching all three of them?”

Kakashi looked appropriately chastised, hand reaching up to scratch the back of his head, single eye squinted in a nervous smiles, “oh, two, maybe three months?”

Iruka let out his own sigh, backing away from Kakashi to sit at his kitchen table instead, “Kakashi, they’re too good. With Narumi it was already expected, people knew she was going to outpace her classmates. But with all three of them? People are going to begin wondering what they’re still doing in the academy when they could be graduated and placed on a genin team probably at the end of the year”.

Kakashi sat in the seat across from Iruka at the table, placed his elbows on the table, and proceeded to drop his head into his hands.

“I know,” he said wearily, “but you and I both know they’re too young to be genin”.

“They need time to be kids” Iruka agreed, nodding his head, “but they won’t get it if people realize how advanced they are”.

“I can’t just not teach them anymore, Iruka, outside of the fact that the Hokage is the one who asked me to train Narumi, Sasuke and Sakura are gifted in their own rights. They’re good kids, they’re eager to learn, And they're well on their way to surpassing most of the academy’s curriculum” Kakashi said in a resigned tone, shaking his head slightly.

Iruka stared at the other man, “you're attached to them” he bluntly stated. It wasn’t a question.

Kakashi turned away, avoiding looking at the teacher.

“Then you need to find a way to keep them safe. I trust you know what it’s like to be a young prodigy, made genin too early. If you want to keep training them, then do it in a way that will keep them at the academy. Do it in a way that lets them stay kids” Iruka placed a hand on the older man’s shoulder before slipping out of his chair, and heading for the door.

Iruka's hand just touched the handle when Kakashi finally spoke up, “I’ll keep them safe”.

“Good” Iruka nodded and then exited the apartment.
______

Narumi and Sakura were sparring on the water's surface at their usual tracing ground in a taijutsu only match. The two girls had been starting to learn wind and earth jutsus respectively, but their control (especially Narumi’s, who often put way too much power behind hers) wasn’t good enough to mix in when sparring yet.

Sasuke sat to the side, meditating; Kakashi promised to help him with his own fire Jutsu later, but he needed to get a better feel for his chakra first.

Narumi pushed forward, palm out, and bodied Sakura directly into the water before she could dodge. Sakura broke through the surface of the water, coughing, before pulling herself out of the water to stand next to Narumi.

“Good spar you too. Sakura, can you tell me what you did wrong?” Kakashi asked from where he was leaning against a tree, book open in hand.

“When Narumi dodged my last punch, I over extended myself and wasn’t fast enough to block Narumi’s palm strike that she followed up with” Sakura stated diligently.

“Good work Sakura, Sasuke, switch with Sakura and spar a round with Narumi” Kakashi directed his two students.

Sakura made her way off of the water and towards Kakashi, passing Sasuke on her way and smiling as they exchanged a high five.

“thanks sensei!” she smiled brightly, catching a towel Kakashi tossed her way. She quickly patted herself down and collapsed onto the ground in front of a tree next to where her teacher was relaxing. She pulled out her own book (a romance novel) from seemingly nowhere, and cracked the book open.

Kakashi eyed her from the side, letting out a small chuckle before turning his attention back to his own book.
…

Thirty minutes later, Sasuke and Narumi stood panting, arms raised to continue the spar, when Kakashi called out for them to stop.

“Call it a tie you two, I need to talk to you guys”.

The two kids looked at him curiously and made their way towards their sensei. Sakura closed her book, and scooted herself to sit in front of the silver haired man, Sasuke and Narumi plopping down next to her so they were in an almost half circle in front of Kakashi.

“What’s up, Kakashi-nii?” Narumi questioned, Kakashi let out an involuntary sigh.

“You three are talented, I’m sure you all realize this. But the problem is, people only expect that from Narumi, and maybe Sasuke to a lesser degree. But with all three of you being so much better than your classmates, people are going to begin to notice” Kakashi started.

“So what?” Sakura asked curiously.

“If people notice, they might start to wonder why your not already preparing to graduate and be placed on a genin team-“

“Why aren’t we being encouraged to graduate?” Sasuke interjected.

“And you're too young to be on a genin team. We don’t want the wrong people to eventually know your strengths and petition for you to graduate early”, Kakashi continued as if Sasuke didn’t say anything.

Sasuke scowled at the jonin, “you just said we’re better than our classmates, if we can, we should be allowed to graduate and become ninja” Sasuke countered passionately, fist clenched. His brother graduated early, why shouldn’t he if he had the talent, his father would surely prefer it.

Narumi put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, trying to calm her friend. Sakura watched the boy a bit nervously, eyes flitting between her friends and her sensei.

“Wait a second, stupid Sasuke, let Kakashi-nii explain” Narumi told the glaring boy.

Kakashi made eye contact with Narumi at that, she gave him a small nod, and he returned it. It didn’t seem like she knew where he was going with this, but it did look like she trusted him.

“You’re young” Kakashi reiterated, looking all three kids in their eyes, “and you deserve the opportunity to be young. You don’t need to be made ninja before you hit double digits, this isn’t a time war anymore where the village is strapped for ninjas. It’s not all guts and glory progressing past your peers, you can become detached from the very people you grew up with. you're nine- ten years old and leaving the village on missions, you're expected to take lives” he looks at the girls, “your expected to seduce bad people”, Sakura blushes, Narumi looks resigned, “you're expected to complete any mission given without question, no matter what it entails. And all the while, your year mates, your friends, their at home with their families, with their friends, and their getting to be kids. They don’t understand what you’ve done, what you’ve been expected to do.”

Kakashi takes a deep breath.

“I was considered a prodigy, I still am, I was made genin at 5, chunin at 8, jonin at 12” Sasuke gaped at his teacher, itachi hadn’t been made a genin until 7, chunin at 10, jonin at 13. “And I- I wouldn’t recommend it. Your kids, you should be rewarded the opportunity to be kids” Kakashi finished, his shoulder sagging slightly.

The three friends stared at their teaching, taking in everything he said. Finally, it was Sakura who spoke up, seemingly having come to some type of decision. She looked at her sensei with fierce determination, “what do you want us to do?” she asked, voice steady.

Kakashi met her eyes, “lie, deceive” he looked at all three students sitting in front of him, “don’t let them know how strong you are. A ninja's advantage is to be underestimated by their enemy,” he focused on Sasuke, “and be kids”.

Narumi crossed her arms, rolling her head this way and that in thought, before turning her attention back onto the silver haired man, “Kakashi-nii?”

He sighed, “hmm?”

“Do I have to hide my strengths? I mean, The Hokage already knows I'm awesome" Narumi asks.

“Well no, you don’t have to be that deceptive. At least not to those who already know you. People are already aware of your chakra proficiency, so it would be more suspicious if you suddenly got, uh, less awesome. Just, stay stagnant, don’t let others see you progressing”. Kakashi answered, hand reaching out to pat the girl's head.

“What about us, sensei?” Sakura piped up, gesturing to herself and Sasuke, who was scowling at the ground.

“Don’t let others see how strong you’ve gotten, people haven’t noticed your strength yet, keep it that way. Like I said, stay stagnant. Sasuke, you can still be the best at taijutsu, and Sakura, you're still the smartest kunoichi in your year. Just keep pace with your peers, stay on an unassuming trajectory.”

Kakashi looked to the scowling boy. Sasuke hadn’t said anything in a few minutes.

“Sasuke, I know you don’t like it, but I promise, it’s the best move. No one will fault you, think less of you, if you don’t graduate early like your brother”. Kakashi tried to reassure the unconvinced boy.

“He’s right, Ototo,” a voice suddenly said. Sasuke’s head shot up and watched as his aforementioned brother landed next to where Kakashi was still sitting.

“Nii-san?” Sasuke questioned, voice slightly pinched.

“Kakashi spoke to me about everything, and he’s right. You should stay in the academy, all of you should” Itachi spoke to all three of them. Sakura and Narumi looked between the two brothers; they knew Itachi was considered a prodigy from what Sasuke had said, they couldn’t help but feel like his words held a similar weight to them like Kakashi’s did. and they also knew that Sasuke idolized his brother.

“But father-“

Itachi crouched down in front of Sasuke, and placed his hands on either side of his shoulders, cutting him off before he could run down that road, “Father won’t know the truth, but I will. and I recognize your skill, Sasuke, but I agree with Kakashi. Stay my kid brother a little bit longer. Continue to grow strong, but do it for yourself, not for anyone else, and not for our father”.

Sasuke glanced away, saw that Kakashi was focused on his book and that Sakura and Narumi had walked away at some point, giving the brothers some privacy. Sasuke looked back to his brother, and moved forward into his arms. Itachi was shocked for a second, but relaxed almost immediately, wrapping his arms around Sasuke.

Sasuke backed away first, looking away from Itachi, blushing. Itachi let out a soft chuckle and pat the embarrassed boy's head.

After a moment, Sasuke looked towards his teacher, and took in a deep breath, “okay, Kakashi-sensei, I’ll stay in the academy”.

At the black haired boy's declaration, Kakashi lowered his book and gave a genuine (and relieved) eye smile. Narumi and Sakura suddenly appeared, flanking him on either side, taking both his arms in matching holds.

“We’ll be the best kept secret of the academy, powerhouses ready to defeat them all when they least expect it! It’s gonna be awesome!” Narumi announced, tugging on his arm in excitement.

“We’re gonna be such good ninjas, our secrets are gonna have secrets! And when the time comes, we’ll shock them all with how strong we are!” Sakura followed up with, giving Sasuke’s arm her own tug.

Kakashi watched his cute little student in relief, happy to know they would be allowed to stay as cute little students.

Itachi watched with his own sense of relief, realizing, for the first time, that his brother had found himself a couple of loyal friends.

Chapter Text

A rush of leaves blew down the street after a particularly strong gust of February winds. Sakura shivered slightly from where she was sitting on one of the many stone walls lining the streets of Konoha. Rubbing her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to generate some heat, Sakura turned her attention to the boy next to her. 

“I swear on Kakashi-sensei’s perverted book, Sasuke, if she’s not here in the next 5 minutes, we’re leaving” Sakura grumbled.

Sasuke was leaning against the wall Sakura was sitting on, his hands stuffed in his pockets in his own attempt to keep his fingers warm. 

“Hn” he grunted in agreement. 

Sakura kicked him where her dangling feet could reach from her perch on the wall, which happened to be his shoulder.

“Use your words” she chastised. Sasuke sent her a glare before rolling his eyes. 

Noticing something in the distance, Sakura sat up a bit straighter, straining her eyes to see better. Quickly looking back to Sasuke, she poked him on the cheek with the tip of her shoe, ignoring his grimace of disgust. 

“Look” she pointed down the road after she had gotten the others attention, “it’s Kakashi-Sensei”. 

Looking where Sakura was gesturing, Sasuke saw the familiar sight of Kakashi walking down the street, book in hand. Suddenly he stopped, quickly looking left then right, as if to confirm he was alone, before flipping a page in his book and letting out a very unmanly sounding giggle. He turned the book sideways, and seemingly the page he had been looking at unfolded from the book 2-3-4 times. He started giggling anew, taking in what the two ninja in training could only assume was some kind of multi-page spread. 

“Sensei..” Sakura said sadly, watching the silver haired jonin attempt to refold the page back into the book. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the man with suspicion. 

Kakashi seemed to spot them, putting his book away in his pouch. He waved to his two students, his other hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck with embarrassment. Suddenly he appeared in front of them with a body flicker. 

“Ah, hello you two, waiting for Narumi?” He asked. 

“Oh sensei” Sakura lamented, seeming to ignore his question, “maybe you need a girlfriend or something, It’s not normal to walk around reading such things in public”. 

“S-Sakura, I’m sure I have no idea what you're talking about. What I read is fine literature“ Kakashi tried to defend. Sasuke stared at the man unblinking. 

Sakura sighed heavily with the weariness of a woman three times her age, “Kakashi-sensei, I’m pretty sure you're breaking a few public indecency laws walking around with those books open all the time”. 

“Oh well, you know me, just a big-ol’ pervert,” Kakashi grinned at the girl, his single eye curving with the strength of his smile. 

Sasuke's still unblinking gaze doubled in its intensity. “Narumi?”  he questioned. 

Kakashi's shoulders sagged and his smile intensified (if that was possible) before he suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a gleeful looking Narumi. 

“He he, you caught me” she giggled. 

Sasuke snorted, face cracking in a small smile. 

“Whaaat?!” Sakura asked with obvious shock. 

“Idiot, Why are you pretending to be sensei?” Sasuke asked his still grinning teammate. 

“I pretend to be Kakashi-nii all the time, well at least all the time in the civilian district, the one time I pretended to be him in the main part of the village, this really intense guy dressed in this crazy green jumpsuit- he kind of looked like a frog- kept following me, trying to challenge me to a race around the village. He was all like ‘if I lose, I shall do the most youthful thing and complete one thousand one handed pushups with you standing on my back’, I’m pretty sure froggy-san is insane, so I disappeared pretty quickly after he said that. Now I mainly stick to the civilian areas when I’m henged as Nii-san” Narumi explained. 

“That still doesn’t explain why you pretend to be Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura interjected curiously. 

“Oh, well that’s easy” Narumi said, a devilish smile overtaking her face, ”I like to go around the shopping areas and buy things using only pennies, people hate it, it’s hilarious, but I can’t very well have them hating me now, so I do it as Kakashi-nii” Narumi was fully sniggering by this point.  

“Is that why Mrs. Tatsubashi from the produce stand keeps giving me dirty looks when I walk by?” The real Kakashi asked, suddenly appearing crouching on the wall next to Sakura. A single hand shot out against her back, stopping her from falling when she jumped a bit in surprise. 

“Oh no, that’s for a completely different reason” Narumi said after getting over her own shock at her nii-sans sudden appearance. 

“Which is?” He probed. 

“None of your business” the redhead filled in, crossing her arms.

“I believe it is my business when you're disguising yourself as me” Kakashi gave her a relaxed smile. 

“Good thing Mrs. Tatsubashi’s opinion of you is unrelated to me transforming into you” Narumi said, grinning. 

“What are you doing here, sensei?” Sakura cut in before they could devolve into one of their usual bickering matches. Would she forever have to be the only sane person around?

“Ah, well, I was going for a stroll when I happened to see my cute little students” Kakashi answered, giving the girl a genuine smile and patting her on the head, allowing himself to be distracted. 

Sakura batted his hand away with a huff, “you need to stop treating us like one of your dogs, Kakashi-sensei”.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about” Kakashi said, hands having moved to pat a scowling Sasuke and smug Narumi. “What were you three getting up to? Not causing trouble I hope.”

“Us, causing trouble? Never.” Narumi answered, moving away from Kakashi and hoisting herself up onto the wall on the other side of Sakura and above Sasuke. She let her legs dangle off the wall and over Sasuke’s shoulders, her head resting in her crossed arms on top of his head like he was a very reluctant coffee table. Sasuke's scowl deepened but he didn’t make any effort to move away, he’d learned his lesson after last time. He shuddered internally at the memory, he was never able to get the smell of old watermelon out of that shirt again. 

“Uh-huh” Kakashi nods, unconvinced. 

“We're going to Narumi’s house to meet her mother and have some tea” Sakura supplied helpfully. 

Kakashi glanced at Sakura, then Sasuke, then Narumi in quick succession. None of the kids had on any particular face, they all looked totally unbothered by the conversation. Kakashi looked to Narumi with a raised eyebrow.

“They’re going to your place?” He asked. 

“Yup” she said, popping the ‘P’.

“Your house, that’s in the flower district?”

“Uh-huh” she nodded 

“Your house, that is on the second floor above a brothel?”

“How do you know where I live” she said making a grimaced face. 

“To meet your mother, who is the madam of said brothel?” He continued. 

“The one and only”

They stared at each other for a couple seconds…

“Well, have fun you three. Narumi, try not to traumatize your friends. Sasuke, stay with Narumi. Sakura, don’t go wandering by yourself” he announced, hopping off the wall and beginning to saunter down the street. 

“Don’t worry Kakashi-nii!” Narumi said, rolling her eyes and waving off the concern of her pseudo-brother. 

Kakashi let out one last audible sigh before body-flickering away. 

“You live above a brothel?” Sakura asked. 

“You didn’t know?” Answered Narumi. 

…

Sakura's hand held onto Narumi's shirt from behind as they walked through the streets of the less than kid friendly streets and of Kanoha’s flower district. She’d never ventured into this part of town before, and she was definitely feeling a bit uneasy about the seedy area. Even Sasuke was more tense as the three of them walked down the dimly lit street lined in red lanterns; he stood just next to Narumi, not letting to much space accumulate between himself and the rest of the group. 

Sakura eye’d a visibly drunk man stumbling out of a particularly vibrant establishment, he winked at her before quickly turning away to puke only to immediately begin chatting up a very scantily clad woman that lingered outside the building he had just exited. 

“You live around here?” Sakura asked, not judgmentally, but with a definite air of ‘really?’.

“Yeah! I know it’s not the best area, But if you ignore the people, they usually ignore you too. Plus people know who my mom is, and she’s pretty respected in the area, so that helps too”. Narumi answered, not feeling the slightest bit embarrassed. 

The three of them turned down an alley that Narumi was definitely familiar with, and led the group through an unassuming door and into a small kitchen area. 

“I thought I would bring you guys here to meet my mom before taking you home. This is the rest area for brothel, this is usually where I hang out when I have the time” Narumi explained, gesturing to the table and chairs for Sasuke and Sakura to sit. 

“The brothels on the other side of that door, so it’s best if you guys wait here for a sec while I go grab my mom” Narumi said quickly, exiting through the only other door in the room. 

Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other from their seats at the table  

“I think I get why Kakashi-Sensei told us not to go wandering off” Sakura commented. 

“Yeah” Sasuke agreed. 

“It must be a totally different way to grow up, being surrounded by all this” Sakura thought of her parents for a moment, she knew they wouldn’t be happy if they knew where she was. 

“Yeah, but from what Narumi said on the way here, her mom’s done her best to separate her from it” Sasuke interjected. 

Sasuke thought of his own parents for a moment, he didn’t know how his dad would react to him being here, he would probably think it disgraceful for an Uchiha to be caught here. He didn’t even want to imagine what his mom would say if she knew. 

Sakura suddenly let out a squeaky giggle, “do you- do you think Kakashi-sensei’s ever been to the district?” Sakura asked between struggling breaths.

Sasuke's entire face went red at the thought, “I don’t know, but I really don’t want to think about it”. Sasuke shuddered. 

Sakura let out a laugh at Sasuke's reaction. Narumi chose this moment to come back into the kitchen, a beautiful black haired woman in a silk green Kimono that did wonders complimenting her eyes trailing slightly behind her. 

“What’s got Sasuke blushing redder than a tomato?” Narumi asked by way of introduction. 

“The prospect of Kakashi-sensei’s intimate personal life” Sakura answered, causing Sasuke to blush anew. 

Narumi let out a giggle, “yeah, that’ll do it”. 

“This is my mom, mom these are my friends, Sasuke and Sakura” Narumi continued after a moment, gesturing to her mom, and then to where her two friends were sitting. 

“It’s lovely to meet you two, Naru-chans told me so much about you, I’m Mayumi Yamazaki, but you both can call me Mayumi” Mayumi said, her perfectly painted red lips stretching into a kind smile. 

“Wow you’re beautiful. Uh I- I mean, it’s very nice to meet you too” Sakura stuttered out, blushing at her slip of the tounge. 

Mayumi let out a cheerful laugh, “Thank you, that’s very nice of you to say”. 

“It’s nice to meet you” Sasuke greeted.

”I hope Naru-chans said good things about us” Sakura said, sending a mischievous smirk to Narumi when the other girl groaned at the nickname. 

“All very impressive things, don’t worry. You’re both very talented from what Naru-chans told me. She often complains to me that she’s unable to defeat you when you spar” Mayumi directed the last statement at Sasuke, sending him an impish wink. 

“Mooooom” Narumi wined, “stop spreading my embarrassing secrets”. 

“Heh loser” Sasuke huffed out a laugh at the girl's over-exaggerated embarrassment. 

Sakura let out her own snicker. 

…

“Your mom is so cool” Sakura lamented, letting out a forlorn sigh, “she’s so pretty and strong, did you see the way all those people were bowing to her and nodding to her in respect while we were walking, Sasuke?” Sakura asked, turning to the boy walking next to her on their way to get some sushi for lunch. 

After their initial introduction, Mayumi had offered to take them out for dinner at a nice barbecue place outside of the flower district. Sakura had been completely enamoured with the way the people of the district seemed to regard her with respect. Like she was some kind of beautiful and powerful force to be feared yet revered. 

“Yeah” Sasuke agreed, blushing slightly at the memory of when Mayumi had smiled at him upon their departure from the Yamazaki residence last night. 

“Don’t get weird guys, that’s still my mom” Narumi piped up from Sakura's other side, eyeing Sasuke’s blushing cheeks warily. 

 “Oh don’t be like that”, Sakura punched Narumi in the arm, “we’re just appreciating the elegant beauty of your mother”. 

“I look like my mother, does that mean you think I’m an elegant beauty?” Narumi asked, a grin stretching across her face. 

“You are adorable, like a little kitten” began Sakura. 

“Nothing elegant about you,” finished Sasuke. 

Narumi huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. 

It was Sunday, so they were taking advantage of the last day of their weekend to relax before Kakashi-sensei inevitably worked them to the bone on Monday. With Narumi and Sakura improving their basic taijutsu skills in leaps and bounds, Kakashi had begun adjusting their lessons to now focus more on finding individual taijutsu styles.

Sakura decided she was a big fan of, and felt most comfortable with, using a more direct- strike em hard and strike em fast, approach to fighting. She had definitely taken a shining to learning how to strengthen her limbs with chakra. The choice had taken the three others by surprise only for a moment before they really thought about it. Sakura may look sweet and innocent, but she sure could pack a punch when she was angry. 

Sasuke was adamant about learning his clan's style, but had eventually been convinced by Kakashi to incorporate some of his own strengths into it. So he started focusing on making his movements more fluid and accurate, focusing less on brute strength and more on avoidance and counter force.  

Narumi had given hers a lot of thought before making any decisions, but she eventually approached Kakashi with an idea. She began developing her own personal taijutsu style that took advantage of her innate ability to use chakra sticking. It involved the same basic principles of using chakra to walk on water, it had her using her chakra to stick to her opponent when she made contact. Using her own strength to redirect and disarm her opponents, and basically invoke her or forcefull will onto their limbs. Pushing and pulling them away from her with ease from where she had her foot stuck to their chests, or a hand anchored to their wrists. She would then pair this with her flexibility and fluidity, tying it all together with brute strength. It was a good style for her, with her large chakra pools it would make it harder for someone to shake of her drip by trying to disrupt her chakra. 

The three kids were about a block away from the sushi restaurant when they ran into Shikamaru and Kiba walking down the street. 

“Hey! Narumi!” Kiba called out, an arm vigorously waving. 

“Kiba!” Narumi yelled back in excitement, sprinting towards the boy in question. 

She launched herself into the air, careening at him in a full body tackle that sent the two of them tumbling to the ground in a puff of dust. Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Sakura watched on in confusion (and dull exasperation in Shikamaru's case) as the two struggled on the ground, rolling around in the dirt like a couple of dogs, before Kiba threw Narumi into the air with a foot to her stomach. Narumi landed on her feet with an ‘oof’ while Kiba sprung up onto his feet from where he had been laying with his back in the dirt. 

Narumi ran at him in another tackle, but was caught around the neck by Kiba, who began vigorously giving her a noogie. He was laughing uproariously at Narumi’s sputtering attempt to stop him, her own cackling laughs slipping out between shouts of ‘quit it’ and ‘stop’. 

Shikamaru sidled up to Sasuke and Sakura while the two crazy people were distracted. 

“Like two puppies choosing to play-fight in greeting” Shikamaru intoned, “how troublesome”. 

“Is this.. normal?” Sakura asked, staring at the scene before her in confusion. 

Sasuke frowned, glaring at the scuffle. 

“For those two” Shikamaru answered, walking toward the still locked together pair. He grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts and separated them like he was holding the scruff of two wayward puppies. 

“That’s enough,” he said with little interest, standing between them. 

“You’re no fun, Shikamaru” Narumi wined. 

“And you’re making a scene” Shikamaru voiced back. 

“Dobe, what was that about? You’re covered in dirt now” Sasuke said, standing next to Narumi, Sakura just beside him. 

“Oh no, your clothes!” Sakura cried. 

Narumi began dusting herself off, giving her friends a non-committal shrug while sticking her tongue out at Kiba. The other boy shot her an affronted look before sticking out his own tongue back. 

“Haaa~” Shikamaru lamented. 

Narumi let out a giggle at Shikamaru’s expense. 

“We're gonna get sushi, do you guys want to join us?” She asked, ignoring Kibas attempts to goad her into an arm wrestling match by pushing him away with a hand to his face. 

“Su-hi?” Kiba asked, voice muffled by Narumi’s hand. 

“Ew, don’t talk when my hand’s so close to your mouth! Your breaths all warm and wet and gross” Narumi pulled back her outstretched hand, wiping it on Sasuke (who happened to have the misfortune of being the one standing closest to her now)'s shirt. 

Sasuke sputtered at Narumi incoherently, face disgusted. 

“We’re going to Junji Sushi, they have really good salmon rolls,” Sakura said dreamily, ignoring her two friends' antics. 

“Heck yeah!” Kiba cheered, successfully distracted from trying to annoy Narumi any further. 

“Alright,” Shikamaru answered off-handedly, refusing to admit he was also excited to get food. 

The group entered the restaurant, sitting in a large booth near the back. 

“How's your training going?” Shikamaru asked once they had finished looking over the menus, directing his question to the redhead sitting across from him. 

“It's good, we’ve been doing water walking exercises for the last few day” she answered cheerfully. 

The three of them were still following Kakashi’s advice, keeping the fact that Sakura and Sasuke were training with her a secret. She was also minimizing what training they were doing, having moved on from water walking exercises a few months ago. 

“That’s awesome!” Kiba yelled out excitedly. 

“Yeah! Kakashi-nii is super strong! Too bad he’s always walking around with that perverted book, and he’s always late, otherwise he would be really cool” Narumi complained, resting her head in her hand and letting out a melancholic sigh. 

“I don’t know” Sakura pondered from where she was sitting next to Narumi, “yeah it’s a perverted book, so he loses points for that, but the way he seems to always know what’s happening around him even when reading, and the way he can spar with you without even putting it down is kinda cool”. 

“You’ve met the man?” Shikamaru asked, raising a single eyebrow. 

“Yeah, a few times, I’ll sometimes watch Narumi’s training sessions, I’ll usually drag Sasuke with me so we can laugh at her together when she gets knocked down” Sakura brightly says, a mischievous glint in her eyes. 

Sasuke let out a snort, as if picturing Narumi falling on her ass.

Shikamaru nodded his head slightly, lowering his raised eyebrow and relaxing his face into its usual indifference. 

Kiba laughed uproariously at the mental image of Narumi repeatedly losing to her sensei. Narumi launched a napkin ball at his chest, ever so subtly enhanced with chakra to give it an extra punch. 

Kiba let out a ‘oof’ at the impact. 

“Hey hey, did ya hear?” Narumi suddenly asked, pulling in everyone’s attention, “Kushidori-sensei’s getting a divorce, he got kicked out of the house, and his wife’s gonna be fighting for full custody of the kids”. 

Kushidori-sensei was one of their teachers at the academy. He taught basic traps, and was widely regarded as the least favourite teacher amongst the first years at the academy. 

“How could you possibly know that?” Shikamaru and Sakura asked at the same time, one much more emphatically than the other. 

“That doesn’t matter” Narumi dismissed the question with a wave of her hand before continuing, “the important part is that he was caught cheating, but not just regular cheating, but like super-messed-up-and-ruin-your-life cheating. The kind of cheating that when it got out, it brought his morals and the ethics of having him be a teacher into question, so he had to be investigated. He’s been fired! So I’m telling you, we’ll have a new traps teacher come Monday”. 

Her four friends just stared at her for a second before Kiba yelled, “what the heck! He’s been fired?!” 

Shikamaru’s eyebrows furrowed. 

“He was always a little weird, but I never would have thought it was something like that” Sakura said. 

Sasuke scowled, “he was a creep”. 

“Yeah, totally was. And a jerk too” Narumi nodded, agreeing with Sasuke. 

“But seriously, how do you know this?” Kiba questioned. 

“I get around,” Narumi shrugged noncommittally. 

Truth was she had heard about his preference from her mother, who had told her in an effort to warn her to stay away from the man if possible. He never did anything illegal, but he had a habit of requesting a specific type of girl at the brothels. 

She had then witnessed the fight between Kushidori-sensei and his wife one evening when wandering the village in disguise. It’s how she knew about the divorce, the being kicked out, and the wife fighting for full custody of the children. She then later found out about the investigation from one of the girls Kushidori visited at Mayumi’s brothel, and then heard about his subsequent firing from Iruka-sensei yesterday. She had been disguised as Kakashi at the time and Iruka had stopped her on the street to chat, thinking she was him and letting slip the drama that was currently shocking the staff. It’s the actual reason she was late meeting up with Sakura and Sasuke yesterday. 

Kiba grumbled at Narumi’s non-answer. 

“It’s best not to try and figure it out” Sakura said, patting Kibas arm in sympathy, “she just tends to know these things, we stopped trying to understand it awhile ago”.

Shikamaru eyed Narumi for a moment, his brain working. She caught his gaze watching her and sent him a wink, sniggering to herself. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, dropping his head onto the table and closing his eyes like he was taking a nap. 

The waitress chose this moment to arrive with their sushi. 

______

It was a warmer March morning when Sasuke exited the Uchiha compound with a force-upon-him shopping list in hand and a plan to stay away from the house for the next two-to-four hours. His mother and father had been fighting about something, he wasn’t sure what, but whatever it was, it was important. His mom was raising her voice, and she only got that furrow in her brow when she was particularly enraged. Uchiha women were notoriously put together, they took the saying ‘never let them see you crack’ as a life motto, his mother especially. For her to be yelling so openly, even in the privacy of their own home, Sasuke knew it had to be something significant. 

He’d heard his dad mention The Hokage, something about the village's trust in the Uchiha police force, and then his mom had yelled back something about someone named Naruto (or maybe the Raman toping? Although that seemed unlikely). He wasn’t sure who that was or what those things had to do with each other, and he didn’t get the chance to figure it out. Itachi swept in before Sasuke could listen anymore, placing the grocery list in his hand, and ushering him out the door with orders to stay out for a few hours. ‘Give mom and dad time to sort themselves out’ he had said. 

So, Sasuke was on a slightly impromptu shopping trip when he exited the front gates of the Uchiha compound and stumbled across the two girls that never seemed to leave him alone (unlike with the weird girls who follow him around asking him out on dates, Sasuke didn’t actually mind these two, though he would never tell them that). 

Narumi shot up into a sitting position from where she was lying back and nearly knocked Sakura out in the process, effectively cutting off whatever story the pinkette had been animatedly telling her.

“About time, jerk, we’ve been waiting here for the last hour” Narumi didn’t waste a second to blurt out upon seeing the dark haired boy. 

“I told you he wasn’t going to remember” Sakura sighed out in a combination resigned and ‘I-told-you-so’ tone.  

“Tch” Narumi spat, passing the pinker girl a wad of small bills

Sakura smiled innocently, stuffing the money into the pocket of her sage green jacket. 

Sasuke looked between the two girls before finally opening his mouth, “what are you two doing here? I knew you were stalkers, but showing up at my house seems excessive even for you” he intoned,

walking over to help pull the two girls up without a second thought. With one of his hands supporting each of their hands, he hefted them up onto their feet in one easy motion. 

“Sasuke, you promised to go out for lunch with us today, remember?” Sakura asked, shoving her hands into her pockets. The slightly chilly March wind was making itself known to Sakura’s fingers. 

“What? No I didn’t?” He asked, almost sounding confused, although he would try to hide it. 

“Sasuke-teme, we all made plans to go to Ichiraku's,” Narumi whined. 

“I don’t even know what that is” Sasuke deadpanned. 

“Don’t be purposefully obtuse, Sasuke, it’s the restaurant we went to go eat at with Kakashi-Sensei last month” Sakura helpfully supplied. Now that sounded familiar, he did remember the food being pretty good, and he could also remember Narumi being extremely taken with the place. She kept going on about bathing in the broth or something equally weird like that. 

“We made plans on Thursday to go, I know you like to act all reluctant to hang out with us, Sasuke-“ “no one buys that for a minute, by the way, we know ya love us” Narumi interjected- “but to leave us waiting out here in the cold for an hour is cruel, even for you” Sakura continued unperturbed by Narumi‘s interruption. 

Sasuke started at the two girls, feeling for the first time that he wasn't being dramatic in all the times he called them crazy, “I have no idea what you two are talking about, you can’t blame me for you being in the cold for an hour if I didn’t even know you’d be here”. 

Narumi made a face at him like he was an idiot, “You hit your head or Somethin’?” She asked, moving closer to stare at his face, like she could see the head injury she was sure he had. 

“No, idiot, I didn’t hit my head” Sasuke pushed Narumi's face away and began walking in the direction of the main part of the village. 

“Could’ve fooled me” Narumi mumbled just loud enough for Sasuke to hear, linking arm with Sakura and following the black haired boy. 

“Sasuke-kun” Sakura began in a sickly sweet voice.  

Sasuke shivered internally, Sakura only called him that in that deceptively sweet voice when she thought he was being particularly stupid in that- as she described it- ‘special way that only dumb boys managed to be’. 

“We really did make plans last Thursday, Kakashi-sensei had just left for the day, and Narumi and I were floating in the water, remember? We were trying to rake all the mud and leaves out of our hair that Kakashi-sensei’s wind jutsu had flung at us. Narumi tried to goad you into another fight by splashing you-“ 

Now that did sound familiar, Sasuke thought, the girls were hit with a pretty nasty whirlwind during their joint match against Kakashi, he was honestly a little worried that they weren’t going to be able to get all the debris out. 

“And then you said-“ Sakura depended her voice and tried to put on broody demeanour- “‘I’m not going to fight you while you’re soaked in river water and mud, idiot’” 

That was exactly what he said. 

“And then I had to step in and stop you too from bickering like an old married couple again, like it's my full time job or something. And than Narumi’s stomach grumbled, and she suggested we get some food, but you were busy” 

This was all still checking out in his memory. 

“and then I suggested we go out another time since you were busy, and Narumi suggested Sunday for lunch, and you agreed, and then we all went our separate ways home” Sakura finally finished her long winded recount of when they made their plans. 

That last part is where they lost him. Sasuke scowled and glanced over his left shoulder to see where the two girls were walking slightly behind him. Sakura raised a single eyebrow in a ‘you remember now ya idiot’ gesture, and Narumi was nodding her head along like everything Sakura had said was the truth, one-hundred percent. 

He did not remember that part of the day, at all. But both the other girls seemed adamant that it had happened. 

Sasuke shrugged slightly, looking forward again, “oh yeah, right, I forgot about that” he eventually said. 

Behind him, Narumi and Sakura glanced at each other, large mischievous smiles plastered on their faces. They quickly cooled their expressions into something less suspicious. Narumi pulled forward toward Sasuke, taking the still-linked Sakura with her, before crossing her free arm with the boy’s. The three were now all walking down the street in a row, arm-in-arm with Narumi in the middle. 

“Great! Now that that’s sorted, let’s get some food! I think Sasuke should pay, since he made us wait out in the cold for the last hour and forgot about us” Narumi excitedly said, sticking her tounge out at her friend. 

Sasuke sighed in defeat and Narumi and Sakura cheered. 

Sasuke didn’t find out until after he had already paid for lunch that the girls had played him, but by then it was too late to kick up a fuss. And even he could admit, it was a little fun. 

___________

“You’re late” Narumi, Sasuke, and Sakura all announced together at the arrival of Kakashi to their usual training ground. 

Kakashi stared at the three irate children lounging on the river bank in front of him. They had their pants rolled up to stop them from getting wet while their feet were resting in the water. He momentarily felt concern for their health since there was no way that water wasn’t uncomfortably cold this time of year. 

“Do you three coordinate on purpose, or is the creepy habit of saying the same thing at the same time just come with the unhealthy codependency?” Kakashi asked rhetorically.

He received three deadpan, blank stares in response, and was now seriously considering that maybe the three of them spent too much time together. 

“Don’t try to change the subject, Nii-san, you’re late, again” Narumi groaned. 

Kakashi sighed. 

“Mah mah, I was on my way here when I ran into an old friend, before I knew it nearly 2 hours had flown by” Kakashi smiled sweetly at his three precious students. 

Kakashi spotted the moment Sakura and Sasuke were about to open their mouths and decided to stop them before they could even start. 

“Alright, I have something exciting planned for today” he said, clapping his hands together to garner their attention and effectively cut off whatever snide remark was about to push past their lips. “Tell me, what do you know of chakra affinities?”

“Every person’s chakra has an affinity for one of the 5 elements, that will be the element and type of chakra they are most able to utilize” Sakura answered dutifully while finally pulling her feet from the cold water. 

The other two followed suit, and Kakashi couldn’t help but eye the subtle steam rising from their feet. Something was going on there. 

He reached out to pat Sakura's head, “Very good Sakura, And what are the 5 element types?”

“Earth, wind, fire, water, and lightning” Narumi piped up from next to the pink haired girl. 

Sasuke sighed dejectedly from his position to the left of the two girls, he shoved his hand in his pockets and leaned his head back to stare at the sky. The picture of a put-upon angsty child. 

“And what has you sighing like that, Sasuke?” Kakashi asked the boy, head tilting in question like that of one of his dogs. 

“You’re going to have us determine our affinites, aren’t you?” Sasuke asked. 

“That was the plan” 

“I already know my affinity, it’s fire, my brother’s is fire, my father’s is fire, and my grandfathers was fire and his father before him, so this is going to be boring,” Sasuke lemented. 

The two girls actually stared at Sasuke with unreadable expressions, not used to hearing the Uchiha complain about something so juvenile. 

“Careful Sasuke, you're starting to sound like Narumi,” Kakashi joked, letting out a full laugh when Sasuke's head snapped up to look at him in horror. 

“Have you ever actually tested your affinity?” Kakashi asked after a moment. 

“No” Sasuke answered reluctantly. 

“Sensei, how long does it take to determine your affinity?” Sakura asked, looking between her teacher and the sulking boy. 

“Oh, one, maybe two, minutes,” Kakashi answered. 

“Pfftt, you’re complaining about being bored for two minutes?” Narumi snickered at the now red faced boy. 

…

A few minutes later, the three students were sitting in a half-circle in front of Kakashi. The man in question was holding a plain looking piece of paper. 

“We’ll find out your affinities using these chakra papers, you’ll channel your chakra into the slip, and depending on how it reacts, we’ll know what your affinity is” Kakashi explained.

As a demonstration, Kakashi lifted his hand holding one of the slips of paper for all to see and pushed in some chakra. The paper crumpled and crinkled, losing its pristine condition. 

“What does that mean, Kakashi-nii?” Narumi asked, eyeing the paper in curiosity. 

“When it crinkles like this, it means you have a lightning affinity, if it gets soggy than you have water, it’ll tear in two for wind, break apart and crumble for earth, and burst into flames for fire”

“Awesome! I want to try it next!” Narumi was practically bouncing in place where she sat. 

Kakashi handed the hyper girl one of the papers and watched on as the paper immediately flew apart in two separate pieces as soon as it touched her hand. 

Narumi’s bouncing increased exponentially as she excitedly gushed, “that means my affinity is wind right?! Right?! That’s awesome, I can totally learn how to do the crazy wind tornados that you do now, right!? Please tell me I’m right!”

Kakashi just reached over to ruffle her hair and gave her a smile before handing Sakura her own chakra paper. 

Once Sakura was holding it, she slowly began channeling some chakra and watched in amazement as the paper began to crumble and almost disintegrate into sand. 

“Woah” she breathed, letting the sand spill from between her fingers and into the ground. 

Kakashi just beamed at her, giving her a thumbs up from where he was now using Narumi’s head as an armrest in an attempt to keep the vibrating girl in her seat. 

“Your turn Sasuke” Kakashi handed the boy the last chakra paper. 

With a great sigh, Sasuke took the paper into his hands and let out a steady stream of chakra into the object. To his, and everyone else’s shock, the paper didn’t burst into flames like they all expected, instead it crunched and crinkled in an imitation of what happened to Kakashi earlier. 

A beat….

“WHAAATT!” The three kids all yelled out in tandem. 

“But how is that possible? He can do the great fireball jutsu?!” Sakura began questioning, her voice raising in octave. 

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Narumi yelled, hands coming up to grip her hair loosely in shock, “Sasuke showed us how to heat our chakra! It’s how we were able to sit with our feet in the water! And your telling me fires not even his element?” Narumi bemoaned. 

‘Huh’ Kakashi thought, ‘that explains the steam coming off of their skin earlier’. 

Kakashi clapped his hands together, garnering the attention of his cute little student once more. 

“Well, that was unexpected. Sasuke, you had trouble with your family’s jutsu, right?”

Sasuke nodded slightly. 

“Mah mah, now we know that it was because fires not actually your elemental affinity. It’s impressive that we’re able to do it at all” Kakashi praised, causing the boy to blush slightly. 

“I don’t know any lightning Jutsu“ Sasuke grumbled slightly. 

“That’s what I’m for,” Kakashi laughed slightly at the boy's tone. 

Narumi jumped up abruptly, knocking Kakashi in the chin with her head during the motion. 

“You can’t teach him any lightning Jutsu before you teach me some awesome wind Jutsu!” She announced. 

“Sit down!” Sakura yelled, grabbing Narumi’s arm and dragging her back into a seated position. 

Narumi collapsed into a legs crossed seat and sheepishly scratched the back of her neck. 

“Thank you Sakura” Kakashi said, rubbing his chin slightly. 

“Of course, Kakashi-sensei” she said innocently. 

“I’ll make some shadow clones to do some one-on-one training with each of you, you’ll just learn some really basic stuff to begin with. No jutsus yet” he eyed Narumi with that last statement. 

Kakashi created two shadow clones and they all separated into three groups, dispersing themselves around the training field so as to not interfere with each other. 

By the end of the evening, Sasuke was able to arch a current between his hands with a visible line of chakra electricity. It wasn’t particularly powerful, but it allowed Sasuke to get a feeling for how to manipulate his chakra. 

Sakura was able to crush a rock in her hand without using brute strength and only her chakra. She was ecstatic at the results. 

Narumi was able to slice a leaf in half using her chakra wind and the tip of her finger. It came as no surprise when the first thing she did after succeeding was threaten to cut Sasuke’s hair with her wind. 

_______________

It was the beginning of May, and the weather outside was finally turning warm. The sun was just touching the horizon, casting the sky in vibrant oranges and pink on one end and deep blues on the other. Sakura and Narumi were currently trailing behind Sasuke trying to annoy their friend into going to the library with them. 

Sakura wanted to do some research on medical Ninjutsu, the newest thing to pique her curiosity, and was forcefully dragging Narumi with her. Narumi, cringing at the thought of how boring an evening spent studying would be, was hoping to convince Sasuke to come with them. She figured, if she had to be bored out of her mind, then so should Sasuke, it was only fair. 

“Come one, teme, just come with us, I’ll even let you drone on about different weapon types to me if you come” Narumi begged, latching onto Sasuke’s arm in an attempt to slow him down. 

“No way, last time I went with you both to the library, we got kicked out for ‘Disturbing the Peace’ cause’ you can’t shut up for more than five minutes at a time” Sasuke struggled to pull his arm from his friends grasp, and ended up just sighed in defeat when he was unable to. 

“I promise not to get us kicked out this time! Iruka-sensei even made me apologize to the librarian when he found out, so the whole things been taken care of!” Narumi tried to defend, “pleeeaase, it’s gonna be so boring if it’s just me and Sakura- no offence Sakura”

“None taken, I know I can get a bit absorbed when I’m reading” Sakura laughed good naturedly, “Just come with us Sasuke, you know you're gonna give in to her whining eventually” Sakura rolled her eyes at the boy. 

“I will not!” Sasuke said, aghast. 

“Every time” Sakura informed him like it was a well documented fact. 

“I do not!” Sasuke said an octave higher, embarrassment and indignation present in his voice. 

Narumi sniggered. 

They were just reaching the clan gates when suddenly Narumi stopped, halting Sasuke with her, her head whipping away from where she was laughing at her friends and towards the direction of the Uchiha District. 

A second later, Sakura and Sasuke's own heads sbapped in the same direction, catching the same thing as Narumi.

“Somethings wrong” Sasuke’s voice cut through the tension that was suddenly enveloping them, his voice laced in subtle fear. 

He was off in a sprint not a second later, having slipped his arm from Narumi’s now lax grip. He rushed through the gate and into the main streets of the district and stilted in place at what he was seeing. 

Bodies. Dozens of them. 

The streets were covered in blood and gore. People laid prone in pools of crimson and viscera. 

A gasp rang out from next to him, and Sasuke’s head whipped to the side to see Sakura and Narumi had followed him in. Sakura’s hands were covering her mouth, tears shining in her eyes. Sasuke belatedly realized he had tears streaming down his own face. 

He looked away from the two girls, a primal wailing sound leaving him as he ran in the direction of his home. 

He tried to ignore the sticky feeling under his sandals. 

He burst through the front door, frantically screaming for his mother and father. Sprinting through the house, he checked every room and threw every door open before running outside and towards the last room of the house. Throwing the doors open, he was once again shocked still. 

Itachi stood over his parents, his dead parents, blood dripping from the Katana in his hand. 

“Nii-san, mother and father, what- what’s happened, why-“

Sasukes gasped and gargled sputtering was cut off by a shuriken, he had just barely managed to dodge, flying past his head and embedding itself into the wall. 

Sasuke stared at Itachi in open confusion and betrayal, his body shaking with unmitigated horror. Tears continued to pour down his face as he was confronted with the reality of what he was seeing. 

“Foolish little brother” Itachi drawled, unfeeling. 

Sasuke was caught by his eyes, the blood red sharingan of his family’s kekkei genkai. 

“Mangekyo Sharingan” Itachi called out, But before Sasuke could realize what was happening, and before he could witness his brother's eyes change shape, a hand clamped over his eyes. 

“DON’T LOOK!” 

…

Sakura and Narumi watched in horror as Sasuke took off running deeper into the district, the squelching sounds of his hurried footsteps echoing through the silent streets like thundering canons. 

Narumi was frozen, her eyes locked on the retreating back of her friend, white hot fear encroaching on her vision. She briefly glanced at Sakura, her friend was shaking, eyes wide in her own horror and locked on the vision before them. 

‘Move’

Like a rubber band being stretched to thin and snapping, Narumi’s entire being jolted into action - pulled from her panic by an unknown source. She thrust her hand out, latching onto Sakura’s wrist and took off in the direction Sasuke had gone. She used every trick, skill, and lesson Kakashi had drilled into her and tracked Sasuke through the unfamiliar grounds. 

Narumi and Sakura turned the last corner, sure Sasuke was on the other side, just in time to hear the man staring down their friends fear stricken face announce his next move. 

“Mangekyo Sharingan”

Narumi moved on instinct, clamping her hand over Sasuke’s eyes, her other arm pulling Sakuras face into her chest, shielding her as well. She knew about the Sharingan, and she had learned about the Mangekyo as well. Sasuke and Kakashi had shared a bit about it the day they had learned Kakashi had a Sharingan of his own. It had taken a lot of explaining for Sasuke to calm down when he’d seen it, but eventually he came to understand it had not been stolen. Though, Kakashi hadn’t gone into much detail about who had given it to him. 

Sakura and Narumi had been enthralled by the kekkei genkai, asking the two a million questions about it and soaking in any information the two were willing to share. 

She didn’t know the details of what the Mangekyo could do, but she knew enough to understand that it was a powerful visual jutsu, and that they had absolutely no chance if any of them were caught in its piercing gaze. 

“DON’T LOOK!” She yelled in a desperate attempt to protect her friends, her own head whipping to the side to avoid the man’s gaze. 

“Nii-san why, mother.. father..” came the pitiful voice of Sasuke. 

Her hand was wet where it covered his eyes. 

Sasuke’s words made Narumi monetarily forget herself, allowing her head to snap forward and see  the current threat. It was Itachi, Sasuke’s older brother, that stood before them. Katana dripping with blood. 

She focused on his feet, still avoiding his gaze as best she could. They needed to get out of there, even without seeing his face, his body language was screaming ‘you are not safe here’.

Sasuke pulled her hand away from his face, his own gaze avoiding the threat before them, instead focusing on the bodies of his parents that lay lifeless at Itachi’s feet. Narumi slipped her hands to Sasuke’s arms, desperate to keep ahold of her friend. 

“Why..” came Sakura's broken question, she too had turned away from Narumi’s embrace; her eyes glued to Sasuke’s anguish, “why would you kill your own parents, your own family?”

“Why Nii-san!” Sasuke echoed Sakura’s question, grief and agony clawing its way through his ragged throat. 

“To prove my strength” came Itachi’s reply, his voice devoid of emotion, all familiarity stripped from his answer. 

“T- to prove your strength” Sasuke repeated, his voice cracking. 

“TO PROVE YOUR STRENGTH?!” Narumi bellowed, voice ripe with injustice and scrutiny.

How dare he. How dare he say that’s his reason for doing this, this horrendous act. 

“Just for that?” Sasuke’s broken response cut through her anger. 

Narumi loosened her grip where she was holding Sasuke, suddenly aware of how tight she was gripping his upper arms. Blood dripped from the small cuts she created. 

“You killed them all, just for that?” Sasuke’s voice seemed to gain momentum with each word, his body beginning to shake anew. 

Narumi desperately glanced from Sasuke to Sakura, Sakura nodded. They needed to get out of there, but there was no way they would win in a fight against Itachi. 

“FOR THAT!” Sasuke screamed, an anger of which the girls had never seen from their friend before radiated from him like a crimson fire. 

Narumi suddenly felt Sasuke try to move, to go forward towards Itachi. She quickly held him tight, anchoring herself to the floor, and him to her. She held him back as he screamed and thrashed, intent on getting to his brother. 

“FOR THAT! YOU KILLED MOTHER, FATHER, AUNTIE AND UNCLE, FOR THAT!” Sasuke seethed, unencumbered tears freeling streaming down his face as he raged. 

“TO PROVE YOUR STRENGTH?! WOMEN, CHILDREN. DID YOU KILL THE BABIES TOO?” Sasuke raved and howled the questions, launching them at Itachi with no reason or thought. 

“It was necessary,” Itachi stated. 

Sasuke’s body suddenly went limp, the fight leaving him all at once at Itachi’s words. Sakura gripped Narumi’s shirt, fist clenching the fabric tight enough to tear. 

He was scared. Like being dipped in a bucket of water, a cold sweat covered his skin. His older brother, the man he had always looked up too, was staring at him like he was the scum beneath his shoe. Sasuke doesn’t know when he stopped avoiding Itachi’s eyes, but he could see them now, black and full of loathing and hate. 

“why not just kill me?” Sasuke’s voice was small and broken, his body only being kept up by Narumi’s firm hold on him. Narumi instantly turned her body towards the exit at Sasuke’s words, dragging the limp boy with him, only to be frozen in place by Itachi standing behind them as well. Did he move that fast or was it something else? A clone or a genjutsu, maybe.  

“Because you are weak, little brother” The Itachi behind them answered, his voice just as passive and uninterested as it had been since they came onto the scene, “you are not even worth killing”. 

Sasuke wailed, a cry escaping him with startling force. Narumi bit her lip, keeping her own sobs locked behind clenched teeth. Sakura slammed a fist into the hardwood floor, the planks splintering under hand, her own teeth clenched in an effort to hold back her fear and despair. 

“If you want to kill me. hate me. Despise me. Grasp your pitiful hatred in your pathetic hands and become strong, and keep on surviving in that unsightly manner until you’re good enough” Itachi’s words were like an ice dagger to the heart, cold and unfeeling. 

With those final words, Itachi’s vanished, his body breaking apart into a murder of crows, all flying out through the open door. 

Silence fell, the only sound that could be heard were the broken sobs of three children, all clinging to each other for strength. 

Sasuke screamed, his voice coming out broken and scratchy, his body unable to keep the pressurizing amounts of agony inside any longer. 

Sakura sobbed, her arms reaching out to Sasuke and Narumi, and pulling them into an embrace. A hold to solidify that they were all there, and that they were all alive. 

Sasuke cried into Narumi’s neck, his face pressed into her by the hold she had in his hair. Narumi’s own face was pushing into the space between Sasuke’s hair and Sakura’s shoulder; her body quivering with repressed emotion. Sakura hid her face against Sasuke’s back, her arms tightly wrapped around her friends, her body wracking with broken gasps. 

Suddenly two arms were wrapped around the huddled group, making them all stiffen with fear. The arms were tight around them, but not crushing or hurting. Narumi untucked her face, afraid she was about to be eye to eye with Itachi once more. 

She saw that it was Kakashi’s arms around them. They were outside now, somehow, far away from the horror they had just endured. She didn’t know where they were, but she now realized she could feel the soft earth below her, and could see the tree line of a forest ahead. 

“Kakashi-nii?” Narumi’s cracked voice questioned. 

Kakashi’s hold tightened in response to Narumi’s voice, and she found herself turning into his embrace. Her face seeking sanctuary in the crook of his neck, her fist gripping the front of his shinobi vest. 

“Sensei” Sakura whimpered, curling into his hold and crying into the side of his chest. 

Sasuke fell forward, tucking himself small between his friends, muffling his own broken sobs into Kakashi’s collar. 

“You’re okay” Kakashi’s voice was steady and grounding.

He rested his chin on top on Sasuke’s hair, and pulled the three of them impossibly closer.

_____

The police station was covered in crimson red. 

When it was discovered that The entire Uchiha police force had been slaughtered, alarm bells instantly went off. All Anbu units had been called in, retired or otherwise, to begin investigating the attack. 

Kakashi, as a well respected former Anbu Commander, was one of those retired officers called in. He had been directed to help lead a squadron to the Uchiha district. 

He knew what they were going to walk in on, they all did. It was impossible to assume the people of the Uchiha district were left unharmed after the arduous bloodshed they had witnessed at the police headquarters. 

Kakashi could only mourn as he made his way through the bloody street. He couldn’t help but think of Sasuke; the casualties were in the hundreds, and they had yet to find a single living person. He did not have hope that his student was still alive. 

He reached out his senses to determine if there was anyone left as he searched the grounds, hoping to catch even a single chakra signature. His heart stopped when he felt three familiar chakras all huddled together. 

Kakashi ran as fast as his legs could take him. 

When he arrived he was faced with the reality of his three students, quivering and crying, holding onto each other for dear life. He dropped to them instantly, pulling them into his arms and body flickering them away from the carnage and into the familiar field where they normally train. 

Narumi was the first to look up at him, her face blotchy and red. She burrowed instantly into his hold, crying harder than he had ever seen her cry before. Sasuke and Sakura followed suit not a second later, and he was relieved to have his three little students safe in his arms. 

They stayed like that for a moment, Kakashi holding them, before the three kids eventually started to quiet. He didn’t know if they had exhausted themselves, or if they simply had stopped crying. 

He decided he was going to take them to his place. He could take the girls home, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t want to be separated at this moment, based on the way they were all gripping each other. And he wasn’t confident their parents could help them with what they had just been through, they were civilians, and their kids had just gone through a massacre of which seasoned shinobi would struggle in the aftermath of. 

And if Kakashi was admitting things to himself, he wanted to be selfish. He had been so sure Sasuke had been killed along with the rest, and to then know he almost lost all his students in one night - he wanted to be able to keep them close. 

He body flickered into his small apartment, and attempted to deposit the three traumatized children on his bed, but found he could not get them to remove their grips from his clothes. He sighed, sitting onto the bed and scooching back to lean against the wall, allowing the three kids to use him as a pillow. 

They were asleep, the night having exhausted them. He subtly scanned them for any injuries, whipping some blood from the corners of Sasuke’s eyes, before biting his thumb and summoning Pakkun. 

“What can I do for you, boss” Pakkun asked before taking in the scene before him, “what’s happened to the pups?”

“Pakkun, I need you to go to the Hokage, inform him that Sasuke Uchiha is alive and uninjured, and that he, along with Sakura Haruno and Narumi Yamazaki, had been found at the scene. Tell him that they are with me, and that I will bring them in tomorrow for questioning, but that at the moment they are in no state to be questioned” Kakashi directed Pakkun, his tone commanding and level, “and also tell him, that if he tries to speak with them before they are ready, and before I bring them in, I will not allow them to be taken” with this last command, Kakashi’s voice took on a darker edge. 

Pakkun looked at the three kids sadly, “you got it, boss”. 

He left through the window. 

Kakashi let out a breath, taking a moment to center himself before summoning three shadow clones. The three clones gave him a curt nod each and followed Pakkun out the window. 

One was on its way to the Haruno household to inform Sakura’s parents that she was fine, but would not be returning home until the next day at the earliest. He had no doubt they would have heard about what happened already; news of the Uchihas massacre had probably already spread across the village. 

When the clone dissipated, he was not surprised by the Haruno’s reaction. They had demanded their daughter be brought home at first, but he eventually calmed them down, reassuring them that Sakura was in the safest place she could be at the moment, and that they would see her as soon as possible the next day. He also explained that he didn’t think Sakura would much appreciate being separated from her friends at the moment. They weren’t happy, but they eventually conceded. 

Another clone went to speak with Narumi’s mother in the flower district. He was actually a bit surprised when this clone dissipated. 

Mayumi had recognized Kakashi instantly despite having never met him before this moment. She seemed to instinctively know something was wrong the moment she had seen him, instantly excusing herself from where she had been speaking with some of her employees and directing him to a more private area to speak. 

“Kakashi-san, has something happened to Naru-chan?” She eagerly questioned him. 

“I’m confident you’ve already heard, but there was an incident tonight” Kakashi began, watching Mayumi nod her head in acknowledgment. 

“Yes, it’s what the girls were informing me about when you arrived” she answered. 

“Narumi was found in the Uchiha district, she’s unharmed, but we believe she has witnessed at least a portion of what’s happened there. She was shaken up, to say the least” Kakashi tried to explain. 

Mayumi’s pale face seemed to become even more white, “and Sasuke and Sakura? Surely they were there with her, they go everywhere together. Are they okay? It was Sasuke's family, was it not? That was killed?” 

“They were there with her, yes, but they are also fine. It was Sasuke’s family, you're correct. We believe Sasuke may be the only one left” Kakashi explained, sadness leaking into his voice somewhat. 

“The three of them were found together? I doubt they have any desire to be separated at the moment. Where are they now? I understand Naru-chan won’t be able to come home tonight, but please at least tell me where she is, and that they’re safe” Mayumi was trying to stay composed, but Kakashi could hear her desperation in her voice. 

“You’re right, they are currently together, I found them and took them back to my place and haven’t been able to separate them yet. They’ve fallen asleep at the moment, but come tomorrow they will need to be briefed at the Hokage's office. but for right now they’re safe”.

Mayumi let out a relieved sigh. 

“What will happen to Sasuke after this? If I’m permitted to ask”. 

Kakashi let out a weary sigh, “I don’t know, but I can only hope he’s treated better than what I’ve seen other orphans receive”. 

Kakashi was actually impressed with Mayumi, she knew what had happened and what to expect without Kakashi even really having to explain it like he had for the Haruno’s. 

The third clone that Kakashi had sent dissipated and Kakashi let out a relieved sigh. Iruka was on his way.